


❀˚Lost but Found˚❀

by n_j_m00



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Asexual Character, Attempt at Humor, BAMF Ocs, Bisexual Female Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Development, Crack Treated Seriously, Dimension Travel, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Families of Choice, Fantasy, Femdom, Fluff, Forgiveness, Found Family, Friendship, Isekai, Loss of Trust, M/M, Mental Health Discussions, Mild Angst, Morally Ambiguous Character, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Redemption, buff women are my kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 76,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27775573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/n_j_m00/pseuds/n_j_m00
Summary: “Do you think the universe fights for our souls to be together? Some things are too strong and strange to be coincidences.”-Emery AllenWhen two jaded teenagers with no relations or shared history are inexplicably summoned to Twisted Wonderland, the lines between the two worlds begin to blur. Armed with omniscient knowledge, they end up becoming the MC's bodyguards as well as the unofficial therapists of the misunderstood villains. Surrounded by friends and foes alike, they must navigate the cut-throat hierarchy of Night Raven College and make it through the series of Overblot that beleaguer the school. Soon, our dimension-displaced duo will come to learn that the villains are not the only ones who have to find a place for themselves in this world.
Relationships: (will be updated as the story goes on), Azul Ashengrotto/Original Male Character, Jamil Viper/Original Female Character, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 60
Kudos: 121





	1. Coffins and Confusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> have you ever written a self-indulgent fic although you've only been in the fandom for ONE day just because you're a huge simp for ONE character? yeah, been there, done that.
> 
> i'm a jamil viper stan (aka i wanna peg him but that's not the point) and i crave more content of him so why not make my own, ya know?
> 
> plus, the OCs in this fandom are always kinda submissive and nice (esp the females)...i wanna change things up by creating a dom, morally ambiguous fem!OC

𝘮𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥

𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘹𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦

𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥

A crooning voice—velveteen and low.

An abyss of darkness—boundless and all-encompassing.

A whirlwind of motion—dizzying and disorienting.

The clip-clop of hooves against cobblestone—rhythmic and persistent.

𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳, 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘭𝘭

𝘸𝘩𝘰'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘶𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘢𝘭𝘭

The last thing he remembered was an empty practice room. Sitting on the cold linoleum floor; the jaunty beat of a k-pop song blaring in the background; a dark screen flashing the title of a game—its name eluding his memory.

A haze clouded his mind, imprisoning his consciousness in its murky depths _._

𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴

Suddenly, the muted pitter-patter sounds of tiny footfalls reached his ears. The noise towed him up from the bottom of the ocean and to the surface, restoring his clarity. Still feeling like he was floating in mid-air, he curled his fingers inward and dug them into the tender flesh of his palms. Grounded by the sharp pain of skin breaking, his eyes flew open and he returned to a state of wakefulness.

_'What the hell?'_

Darkness greeted him, sending him into a frenzy.

_'Oh my God, am I blind!?'_

He blinked his eyes furiously and tried to bring his hand up to rub at them, only to find that he could barely move an inch in such small confinement. Realising that his movements were restricted, his horror increased tenfold.

_'What the fuck am I trapped in!?'_

Dread pooled in his gut as he kicked his leg at the obstruction in front of him in a futile attempt to break out.

"Crap, people are going to come soon! Gotta get a uniform fast!" A tinny voice rung out in the silence like a gunshot, startling him.

Relief and hope filled him in equal measure. It didn't matter who they were. The fact that someone else was here meant they could help him.

"Hey! GET ME OUTTA HERE!" Rough from disuse, his voice cracked on the last syllable. "Please!"

Too disoriented by his baffling predicament, the fact that he was speaking in a foreign language escaped his notice.

The voice continued muttering to themself, seemingly unaware of his pleas and the ruckus he was making whilst banging his fists against the solid surface in front of him.

_'Is this thing soundproof?'_

Panting, he gave up on calling for them and simply waited as the shuffling of feet drifted closer to him. A loud thump then resounded, causing him to jerk in place. The vibrations that followed the thump sounded too close for comfort so he plastered himself flat against the surface behind him.

"Ugh, this lid is too freakin' heavy...fine, I'm gonna have to bust out my special move then!"

_'Why does that sound...ominous?'_

When he placed his hands against the surface, a scorching heat seared his palms, eliciting a yelp from him. Before he could react accordingly, the encasement fell away and the sudden flood of light in his vision temporarily blinded him.

A scream wrenched itself out of his throat as his hands met thin air and his body toppled over. He had been standing upright the whole time instead of lying down on something so thanks to the momentum of leaning forward, he failed to regain his balance.

Just as he hit the ground (thankfully not face-first), the splintering of wood reverberated in the room.

Letting out a gasp, he looked up from his sprawled position on the floor to see the cover of an elegant black coffin hovering near him split into fragments as it was forcefully thrown off. Once the dust had cleared, he saw the statuesque figure of a girl in ornate robes of rich purple and sable lined with gold stitchings stepping out of the coffin.

_'How strong is she? The lid wouldn't even budge for me!'_

With sharp onyx eyes, the girl surveyed her surroundings critically and paused to take in the charred spots of the ground and the flickers of cyan-blue flames licking at the remains of the mahogany wood. Upon spotting him, she narrowed her eyes at him and pushed her golden-streaked hair out of her face before preparing herself to jump.

Her coffin was situated higher than the other suspended ones but that didn't even faze her. As nimble as a cat, she leapt off and dropped silently on the balls of her feet in a crouch. If he wasn't so terrified and mildly concussed by his fall, he would have actually applauded her for that smooth landing.

"Hey, you alright?" The girl asked, striding over to him and giving him her hand.

He nodded and accepted her outstretched hand. "I'm fine, thank you."

Now that both of them were standing up straight, he couldn't help but notice how tall the girl was. She was practically towering over him by a good head or two. The next few aspects he noticed were her Asian-like features, a unique star-shaped birthmark near her right eye and the calluses on her larger hand clasped around his. The strength she possessed was evident in the firmness of her grip and the easy confidence she exuded as she regarded him thoughtfully.

Due to the baggy robes she was wearing, it was hard to discern whether she was built with a more muscular physique or not but there was no doubt that she could probably break him in half if she wanted to.

"You definitely feel real," the girl mumbled, an unreadable glint appearing in her shrewd eyes. "So this isn't a dream after all."

"W-What do you mean?" Jaemin asked, slightly afraid to hear the answer.

The girl gave him a wry smile. "I take it you don't recognise this place then. You'll probably think I'm crazy but we're in a Japanese video game called 'Twisted Wonderland'. Are you Yuu?"

"No, my name is Song Jaemin and are you telling me we got transported to another dimension!?" Jaemin said frantically, his shrill voice rising in decibels as he looked down at his own violet-black robes and sleek leather shoes.

There was even a small brown satchel bag slung over one shoulder and across his chest.

A spark of recognition flared in his brain and he slowly connected the dots. From the distinctive uniform to the floating coffins...this was the fantasy game he was playing an hour ago! Snippets of the storyline and the background information of the in-game characters flooded his head like a tidal wave crashing into a cove, overwhelming him. Dazed, he groaned and rubbed his temples.

She wasn't lying. They really were in a game, oh lord. And now that she mentioned it, they were actually speaking in Japanese the whole time. That was why he could understand what the voice was saying just now despite him being Korean. It was as though Google Translate had been installed inside his head and was automatically translating between Japanese and Korean for him.

"I think I'm gonna cry," Jaemin whispered, face paling. "I'm stuck in my favourite mobile game, I don't know if this is the best or the worst thing that has ever happened to me."

"Ah, so you are probably from the same universe as me. I'm Ming Cuifen by the way. Now, we gotta get out of here before our asses get roasted by-" Cuifen was cut off by the sound of another lid sliding open and crashing to the floor.

From that particular coffin, out came a petite androgynous-looking person with a boyish haircut and effeminate features. They were shorter than the other two with guileless amber eyes, a button nose and thin chapped lips that were slightly parted in surprise.

"That's gotta be Yuu. The MC," said Cuifen.

"H-Hi, do you know what's happening here?" The person questioned them, stumbling out of the coffin—which was hovering above the ground by a scant inch—like a newborn fawn learning how to walk. "Were we about to buried? Oh god, what the hell is going on!?"

"That's the million-dollar question here, sweetie," Jaemin said dryly.

"The lid probably opened by itself since you took Yuu's place by having your coffin blasted open by Grim," Cuifen told Jaemin in a hushed tone.

"Ehhh? Three of you are awake!?" The same high-pitched voice from earlier on exclaimed, disbelief colouring its tone.

The three of them turned in the direction of the voice to face a small creature that was a cross between a cat and a racoon with grey fur and a patch of white on its chest. Its ears twitched spastically along with the dancing flames spurting from the insides as it rubbernecked at them, its unblinking sapphire eyes scanning them up and down.

"Damnit," said Jaemin, instantly recognising the creature. No wonder the coffin was hot to the touch earlier on. This little shit nearly ended up cooking him alive while trying to get the lid off.

"Am I going to die? Where am I? Who are you people?" The person, presumably Yuu, said in dismay.

"Tell you what, run first, questions later," Jaemin retorted, already grabbing Yuu by the wrist so that they could run out of this dimly lit room and away from the pyromaniac creature.

Said pyromaniac creature yowled. "Not so fast! Give me your uniforms or get burned!" His threat was punctuated by a ring of fire springing to life at their feet.

"You're lucky I'm not wearing my Gucci boots or I would have crushed your fat head under my foot, you rat," Cuifen snapped at it, bunching up the hem of her robes to prevent it from catching on fire.

"How dare you call me a rat, human!" it hollered, rightfully indignant by the name-calling. Standing on its hind legs, it brought itself to its full height (which wasn't much since it only came up to their calves) and proudly declared, "I'm the Great Grim!"

"Cute." The deadpan tone of Cuifen's voice said otherwise.

"Now, one of you better pass me your clothes or I'll roast you alive!"

"I can't believe there's a cat-demon thing asking me for a strip-show. Why is this happening to me?" Jaemin sobbed, wrapping his arms around himself like a violated maiden.

Yuu tilted their head. "It can talk _and_ use magic. Oh, and it's kinda cute."

"We have very different definitions of cute," Jaemin said, slightly hysterical at this point as it finally sunk in that he had transmigrated to a whole-ass alternate universe.

"This is one hell of a drug trip," Cuifen said, staring off into the distance as if she was in The Office.

"You're not high. You already said this is real!" Jaemin pushed her and Yuu towards the exit. "Now, come on! Move it!"

A feline-like hiss struck a jarring note in their ears as they spilt out of the room and into a draughty stone-paved hallway. "GET BACK HERE!"

Ignoring Grim, they tore down the corridors at a breakneck speed—Yuu and Jaemin screaming their heads off as they did so while the girl on the other hand calmly led them through the labyrinthine-like layout of the academy.

"Why are we running away from a _cat!?"_ Yuu asked shrilly.

"BECAUSE IT CAN BREATHE FIRE!" Jaemin shrieked.

"IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION."

They passed by multiple vacant classrooms as they ventured deeper into the school, their breathing growing more laboured the longer they ran from the pursuer.

Eventually, they wound up at a sprawling library with its interior illumined by the feeble candlelight of gilded Venetian chandeliers. They ducked past floating books and weaved through the bookshelves but found themselves cornered at a dead-end.

"This is too cliché," Yuu commented as they skidded to a stop.

"Tell me about it," Cuifen said, barely breaking a sweat after their marathon as opposed to her breathless, unfit companions. "Ugh, I hate running in this long flowy, fancy-ass uniform. Then again, I hate running in general."

"Then give it up to me, human!" 

Grim stepped out of the shadows and into their view, blocking their way out with arms crossed over its chest and a smug grin on its impish face.

"If we do, we'll be strutting around naked then!" Jaemin said hotly, backing up against the bookshelf.

Grim shrugged. "That's not my problem."

"You little fuck-!" Cuifen began, looking sorely tempted to drop-kick the monster.

Out of the blue, something streaked across the shelves and coiled itself around Grim's abdomen, drawing startled shouts from the occupants of the room.

"Fugya! What the-" Grim pawed at the cord. "What's with this string?"

"It's not a mere string." A baritone voice interjected as the click-clack of shoes against the linoleum floor reverberated in the library. "It's the Whip of Love!"

"I'm seriously questioning his naming sense," Jaemin said flatly.

"I would make a sex joke but this doesn't seem like an appropriate time," Cuifen said in an undertone, adjusting her hood.

Yuu side-eyed her. "What the—I don't even want to know what you're thinking of right now."

Their gazes trailed from one end of the cord around Grim to the other clutched in the gloved hand of a lanky man standing a little way to the side, swathed in a cloak of umbra. He was slightly shorter than Cuifen but his presence seemed to be larger than life in his grandiose finery.

Dire Crowley. The headmaster of Night Raven College, if Jaemin recalled correctly.

Once he drew nearer, they could see his debonair profile more clearly. A slip of alabaster skin could be seen beneath the flamboyant crow-like mask concealing half of the man's face and two glowing orbs from within the eye cut-outs appraised them thoroughly. He really fit the trope of a classic Disney villain to a tee with his dark, enigmatic theme and charismatic yet cryptic smile.

For a brief moment, the youths allowed themselves to marvel at his regal image and the intricacy of his ensemble.

"Ah, I've finally found our three wayward students!" Crowley emitted a delighted trill. "This occurrence certainly is unprecedented. Not one, not two, but _three_ of you woke up before the allocated time."

Jaemin and Cuifen exchanged a knowing glance before they both let out a nervous laugh.

"Student? What?" Yuu blurted out, frowning. "I don't under-"

Steamrolling on without hearing Yuu, Crowley added, "Leaving the Gate without prior permission is prohibited for your information. My goodness, how impatient can you be?"

"Er..." Jaemin began.

"Not to mention one of you brought along an untamed familiar onto the school grounds and it has gone against several of our regulations!" Crowley told them off, looking askance at them while picking up the monster by its scruff and retracting his whip.

The monster let loose a series of hisses. "I'm not their familiar!"

"Yes, yes," Crowley said absently, "all rebellious familiars say that."

"That's not ours-" Yuu tried to explain to Crowley but he was already heading out of the library.

"Heavens, this must be a new record set for the most number of rules broken on the orientation day." The masked man tutted in reproach, holding Grim away from him to avoid being kicked by his writhing stumpy legs. "I can tell the three of you are going to be quite the handful."

The dimension-travellers sent each other furtive glances as they followed the headmaster.

"Come along now, we'll be late to the entrance ceremony and that won't do. Punctuality is an important trait to have, don't you agree?" Crowley hummed, clamping his hand over Grim's mouth when he finally lost his patience with it throwing a temper tantrum.

Jaemin and Cuifen tuned him out, knowing what his rambling would consist of since they already finished the game's introductions. The fact-paced events that had occurred in the past ten minutes had completely drained them of their energy, mentally and physically. Thus, they chose to remain quiet and let Yuu do all the talking.

To neither of their surprise, the headmaster launched into a lengthy explanation about their arrival at this academy. As a character, Crowley's role was to introduce the premise of Twisted Wonderland by dumping a fuckload of information on the player even if they didn't ask for it. This method was overused but effective since Jaemin and Cuifen both breezed through this chapter with a fair understanding of the game's machination.

The two of them didn't need to talk to each other to know that they had unanimously agreed on going along with the flow of the plot and playing the part of the clueless dimension-travellers like Yuu for now. The moment they get some privacy, they would discuss what their next course of action should be since they were both from the same world.

Twisted Wonderland existed as a mobile game in their world. But it didn't exist at all, even as a concept, in Yuu's world since Yuu was also a character in Twisted Wonderland—the main character in fact.

By the time they reached the Mirror Chamber, the entire first chapter of the prologue had been wrapped up.

All three of them visibly perked up at the sight of two grand double-set doors inching open at the same time a particularly loud voice filtered out.

"Maybe the headmaster had a stomachache and needed to go to the washroom to-"

Expectedly, Crowley barged into the room without a moment's hesitation (after tossing Grim at Yuu), throwing open the doors with a theatrical flourish. His dramatic entrance as well as his exclamation: "That is incorrect!" caught everyone's rapt attention in an instant

The three tagalongs slipped into the room after him, just in time to hear a redhead closest to the door utter, "Ah, he's back."

"My baby." Jaemin heard Cuifen whisper from his right in English and he shot her a look that said "I-feel-you-dude".

After unlocking Riddle Rosehearts' background story in the first arc of Twisted Wonderland, Jaemin had a mini crying session that lasted ten minutes. He just wanted to wrap his second favourite character up in a blanket and feed him tons of strawberry tarts because God knows the boy deserved all the tarts in the world.

Surreptitiously, he wiped away a tiny bead of tear forming at the corner of his right eye. Damn, he was getting emotional just remembering Episode 1-25. 

"Three first-years were missing so I went to search for them. Honestly, I can't believe this..." Crowley trailed off, his cape billowing around his ankles with his exaggerated movements. He proceeded to snatch Grim out of Yuu's hands, pointedly pretending not to hear its snarls. "You three are the only ones yet to be assigned a dormitory. I shall watch over the racoon so please step in front of the mirror."

Well, shit.

Panicking, the three dimension travellers looked to each other, wordlessly conveying their question.

_Who was going first?_

Then again, did it really matter? None of them had magic. The results would be the same no matter the order.

"I still don't know what's going on and I'm not going to lie, this looks like a satanic cult and I'm absolutely terrified right now," Yuu whispered to them. "And I have the feeling you two are in the same situation as me..."

"Yes but all I can say for sure is that we are in a world where people can use magic and this is a magic school so they are expecting us to be magical too," Jaemin said.

"Are we?" said Yuu, consternated. "You make it sound like we are from a different dimension."

"We definitely are. Back where we came from, magic doesn't exist."

"Well, that's true. So what do we do now?"

"Just play along for now and ask the headmaster for help afterwards."

While Jaemin and Yuu were talking in stage whispers that miraculously went unheard by Crowley, a staggering realisation struck Cuifen. The girl stiffened and turned to the headmaster, apprehensive. How could she overlook something as significant as her gender?

"Sir?" she spoke to Crowley for the first time this evening, evoking a flinch from the headmaster who registered the feminine contralto of her voice. His head swivelled around to face her just as she let her hood fall. "As you can see, I'm not a boy."

"What?" he said, the two specks of gold for eyes widening. "This isn't a co-ed school! How on earth..." He then brought his hand up to stroke his chin, brows knitting together pensively. "Yet the Ebony Carriage still came for you...what could this possibly mean?"

Yuu and Jaemin motioned to step forward and intervene but before they could do so, Crowley recovered from the revelation with relative ease.

"Well, it may not be a mistake. Despite your gender, you were chosen to attend this school for a reason! You must be an incredible magician then. Which means exceptions must be made! The idea of throwing you out simply because you're of the wrong gender is ludicrous! Talent is talent, regardless of age, sex, background and status!"

Cuifen blanched. This brought them to her second point. "Sir, I'm not a-"

"Step right up, dear." They were starting to believe Crowley was selectively deaf as he failed to hear the girl's protests and pushed her up the dais and towards the mirror. "There we go."

Oh boy. Jaemin winced. That must be a whole new level of stress.

He could practically _see_ the tangible waves of anxiety rolling off of the girl as she faced the enchanted mirror.

The room fell pin-drop silent when a voice resonated from within the glass. "State thy name."

"Ming Cuifen," she said in a steady, unwavering voice that belied her internal panic.

Hushed conversations rose from the crowd of students in the hall. Many were taken aback by the presence of a woman in their midst while others were intrigued by the implications that came with making her an exception in their all-boys academy. Suffice to say, everyone had certain expectations of her—be it positive or negative—after realising she was a woman.

That really wasn't helping her calm down.

"Hmm, I sense a massive flux of magic from thee."

_'What-'_

"The blazing colour of thy soul; the dark nature of thy power; the keen wit of thy mind...I believe thee is suited for three dormitories. Ergo, thee has the option of choosing which one thee wishes to be housed in."

_'WHAT.'_

Jaemin's jaws unhinged themselves; Crowley gasped; Yuu made an unintelligible sound of confusion; Cuifen blinked her eyes rapidly.

The muttering in the hall gradually increased in volume, fascinated by the unexpected progress of events.

This meant that she possessed magic but how? She had expected to be labelled an empty vessel just like Yuu was in canon so this discovery left her reeling in shock.

"Thee shall reach thy fullest potential in Savanaclaw, Scarabia or Diasomnia."

_'Okay, but can you explain why??'_

Unlike Yuu, Cuifen remembered her previous life in the world she came from. She was a prodigious black-belt Krav Maga master who lifted weights and picked fights with school thugs as a pastime. She was also notorious in her social circle for being rather temperamental and irascible, lashing out violently when provoked and hence, deterring most people from messing with her.

Okay, so maybe the 'blazing colour of thy soul' was referring to her hotheadedness.

It made sense for her to be sorted in Savanaclaw since athletics and sparring were the dorm's areas of expertise and the common trait of the residents was being headstrong. But what about Diasomnia and Scarabia?

Scarabia was known for its large population of sagacious, wily students—basically the Slytherins of Twisted Wonderland. She was knowledgeable when it came to her hobbies but excelling in academics or thinking before acting was not her forte. Yet, the Dark Mirror claimed she would do well in that dorm. So maybe she was resourceful and cunning and those combined traits negated her impulsiveness and average intelligence.

Okay, so 'keen wit of thy mind' applied here.

Diasomnia was essentially made up of elite all-rounders magicians. This baffled her because how did that apply to her? She was only good at sports and activities that involved brute strength or physical labour. If she really did have magic and the mirror was weighing her options based on that, her mana must be potent enough to fit the criteria of a revered dormitory like Diasomnia.

Okay, so 'dark nature of thy power' implied that her abilities did align with Diasomnia's gothic, eldritch aesthetics.

This begged the question: How was she going to find out what magic she had? Just wave a magical pen and pray to whoever upstairs that something would happen?

Well, that was a problem for future-her. Right now, she had to figure out which dormitory to choose.

The most obvious and sensible choice would be Savanaclaw but...

"It's certainly rare for someone to be eligible for more than one dormitory but not impossible," Crowley clarified, bringing her out of her musings. "Now, hurry up and pick one of them, dear. We don't have all day."

Cuifen's mind blanked for a solid five seconds as she turned to the row of dorm leaders awaiting her reply. Her gaze flitted from Riddle Rosehearts to Leona Kingscholar to Azul Ashengrotto to the tablet (Idia Shroud) to Vil Schöenheit and lastly, to Kalim Al-Asim.

The prefect in a gaudy turban was wearing a million-watt grin that softened when she looked his way. He even gave her an encouraging wink and two thumbs-up that coaxed a brief laugh from her, undoing the knot of nerves in her.

Unlike the other dorm leaders who were either displaying polite indifference or calm expectance, Kalim was visibly excited to hear her answer and she knew that no matter what her choice would be, the smile upon his face would not falter.

Kalim was just as dazzling and magnetic as the rest. However, in contrast to the untouchable beauties, his bright persona did not ward off others. In fact, it was a pulsating warmth like the flames of a hearth and it drew people in—comforting instead of daunting.

While the other dorm leaders were far too intimidating for ordinary students to approach, Kalim easily put everyone at ease with his sunny disposition and a ready smile. The best part of it all was that he was sincere and so inherently _good_. And...that really struck Cuifen. In the cut-throat world of athletics she had grown up in, people like him were few and far in between and in this world full of aspiring magicians vying for the top spot, it was no different.

Maybe it was just her favouritism talking but in that split second, she made up her mind and turned back to the Dark Mirror with an answer on the tip of her tongue.

"Scarabia," she announced firmly.

In the distance, she could hear Kalim cheer.

Yep, she wasn't going to regret this.

She was then ushered off the concentric platform by Crowley so that Jaemin could take her place. On her way to the Scarabia group, she patted Jaemin on the shoulder and sent Yuu a reassuring smile. Once she reached Kalim, he welcomed her with open arms and a wide smile—all pearly teeth and unconcealed joy—which she mirrored.

Meanwhile, Jaemin was in full-on panic mode as he stared into the mirror.

Whatever happened to Cuifen that allowed her to be sorted might not happen to him!

"There is a great wavelength of mana emanating from thee, young one."

Jaemin relaxed slightly.

_'Well damn, looks like I got magic after all.'_

"I see the vibrant colour of thy soul; the versatile nature of thy power, and I believe thee shall thrive in either Octavinelle or Pomefiore."

"Great, I gotta pick a dorm too," Jaemin said to himself in Korean, mussing up his salmon-pink hair in frustration.

He wasn't even going to bother pondering over why those dormitories were his available choices or what his innate power could be. The Dark Mirror was all-knowing so it must have a reason for offering those two as his options after taking a glimpse at his soul. As for discovering his unique power, he could always experiment with a magical pen later on and just wing the school year if he ended up sucking at casting spells.

For now, he was stumped—unsure of which dormitory to choose.

He turned to Cuifen with an imploring look that screamed "Help-me-out-here".

She responded with an unimpressed look from beside a chattering Kalim who was practically pressed up against her arm. _'The fuck do you want me to do?'_

Seeing that she would be of no help whatsoever, he turned back to the mirror and took several more seconds to mull over this.

"Er, Octavinelle," he blurted out.

Now that he thought about it, there was no way he would survive in Pomefiore with his dismal Chemistry grade. Concocting poisons and potions required a deep understanding of chemicals and their reactions. His mishaps during science experiments in school proved that he was a safety hazard and an utter failure when it came to that subject.

Well, as long as the dorm was pretty lax about him sneaking out to meet up with Cuifen and Yuu, he didn't really care. He was certain he could meet the academic expectations of Octavinelle since he was pretty studious.

In a whirlwind of motion, Jaemin was escorted to the dorm leader—Azul Ashengrotto—who graced him with a cordial smile and an invitation to approach him if he needed assistance acclimating to their dorm.

"It's no trouble at all," Azul had tacked on, chortling.

Pft, as if he would fall for that. Phoney-ass bastard.

Last but not least, Yuu was brought before the Dark Mirror for their sorting.

Jaemin and Cuifen made eye-contact across the hall and braced themselves for what would happen next.

> [Link](https://share-cdn.picrew.me/app/share/202012/32223_IonpxaQ2.png) to Jaemin's appearance. [Link](https://share-cdn.picrew.me/app/share/202012/12489_lYOvd4j4.png) to Cuifen's appearance.


	2. Magic and Messes

"The shape of thy soul is..."

A beat of silence lapsed by before the Dark Mirror spoke again, contributing to the dramatic effect.

"I do not know."

Crowley leaned forward. "Come again?"

"I sense not a spark of magic from this one." The mirror paused. "The colour, the shape, all are nothing. Therefore, they are suited for no dormitory."

 _'Busted.'_ Jaemin and Cuifen grimaced while Yuu sighed.

"An Ebony Carriage would never go to meet someone who can't use magic! In one hundred years, there has not been a single mistake in student selection. So why in the world..." Crowley's words petered off into a fraught silence, his grip on Grim loosening during his momentary distraction.

None of the students was even trying to be subtle about the fact that they were gossiping anymore. Having so many sets of eyes trained on them unnerved Yuu and they lowered their head to avoid meeting anyone's probing gaze.

Grim seized this opportunity to break free. "PAH! Then I'll take their place!"

Cackling, it sprung out of the crook of Crowley's elbow and nimbly landed on Yuu's head. Yuu yelped—terror was writ large over their countenance—as their hands hovered in mid-air, close to grabbing the cat-racoon hybrid but clearly reluctant to do so lest their hands be burnt off.

"Ah! Stop right there, racoon!" Crowley shouted.

"Unlike that dumb human, I can use magic. Let me in the school instead. If you need proof, I'll show you right now!"

"EVERYONE, GET DOWN!" Riddle and Jaemin's voices blended into one as they yelled in unison, anticipating the worst.

Their timely warning preceded two jets of fire manifesting from Grim's paw. They careened towards the nearest group of students, gyrating in an incandescent column. All hell broke loose as the congregation of boys scattered, shrieking at the top of their lungs when the fiery attack nearly singed off their hair. Kalim was not as fortunate and did not manage to dodge the tail-end of the fire.

"Woah! Hot! My butt's on fire!" Kalim screeched, leaping around and letting out a series of 'ow, ow, ow'.

"Stop, drop and roll. Stop, drop and roll!" Cuifen scurried after her new dorm leader, noticing how him running about merely worsened the intensity of the flames eating away at his robes. "Fucking hell, just calm down!"

Crowley clutched his head and groaned. "At this rate, the school will be a sea of fire! Somebody, catch that raccoon!"

 _'Yah, you're the principal. Why don't **you** do it?'_ Jaemin thought, rushing up to the Scarabia duo to help.

Voices of the bickering dorm leaders were drowned out along with the white noise as Jaemin crossed the span of the room, blood pounding in his ears and mana coursing through his veins. Without even being cognizant of his own magic flaring up, his hand reached out and the unexpected happened.

An arctic-blue glow emanating from his palm heralded a fountain of water coming into existence from out of nowhere. It sped towards Kalim at full pelt, seemingly sentient and acting on its own will. A choked gasp left Jaemin's lips as he watched it douse its intended target, consequently extinguishing the fire.

"Oh, the fire is out!" Kalim halted in his tracks with a grin still plastered on his face despite being drenched from head to toe. He then turned to Jaemin, vermillion eyes crinkling at the corners from the size of his grin. "Jaemin, was it? Thank you for your help!"

"I—er, no problem, dude," Jaemin said weakly as he locked gazes with a puzzled Cuifen.

 _'Did you do that?'_ Her raised eyebrows expressed her unspoken question.

He gave her a minute nod, still stuck in a state of shock over his accidental magic.

After a solid minute, it finally registered in his head that he was capable of conjuring water out of thin air.

Was this his unique ability? Was that why he was sorted into Octavinelle? It was all speculation at this point and he needed to test this theory further. Could he create _and_ manipulate all kinds of liquid or only water? Did his ability consist of controlling other states of water like vapour, ice, snow and permafrost? Or was it limited to only conjuring a stream of water?

In addition, he managed to perform magic without a magical pen since the water had just appeared from his bare hands. Didn't the magicians of this world require instruments like crystals and pens as channels for their mana? Did he possess an unusual form of magic that differed from the denizens' of this world?

He ended up finding more questions than answers the longer he pondered over this. Caught up in his maelstrom of thoughts, he missed the entire spectacle of Riddle cuffing Grim's neck with his fearsome unique power and the ensuing hissy fit from the monster.

"You must do something about this!" Crowley's voice rang out in his proximity, derailing Jaemin's train of thoughts. "Which one of you does this racoon belong to? Proper disciplinary is-"

"How many times must we tell you it isn't our familiar?" Yuu piped up exasperatedly, interrupting the headmaster.

Crowley did a double-take. "Eh? Y-You did?"

The trio levelled him with a quelling look that elicited a nervous chuckle from him.

Crowley cleared his throat. "Anyway, let's get it out of the school." He then directly addressed Grim with a sinister smile. "I won't turn you into a stew for I am oh-so gracious."

Ah, there it was—Dire Crowley's iconic line.

Its protests fell on deaf ears as it was bodily dragged out by a hooded student. The double-set doors shut behind them with an echoing bang, silencing the commotion in the hall.

Jaemin felt a twinge of pity for the desperate creature, having learnt of its motivations and character growth through watching the gameplay. He had conflicting views of Grim since one moment, he wanted to throttle it and the next, he wanted to hug it and never let go. Grim could be both infuriating and lovable, he realised.

Following that fiasco, the prefects pointed accusatory fingers at one another for not inviting Diasomnia to the opening ceremony. Eventually, the argument ended when Crowley instructed the prefects to head back to their dormitories with the first-years.

Yuu, however, was held back by Crowley. Before Jaemin and Cuifen could walk up to them, they were pulled away by their respective dorm leaders. Shooting each other frantic looks, they allowed themselves to join the crowd, opting to not cause a scene by leaving their group right after the Grim incident.

They would have to make their way to Ramshackle Dorm later on in the evening and explain their situation to Crowley then.

* * *

Ming Cuifen

Scarabia looked like a scene straight out of Disney's Aladdin.

The roof of the spiralling towers in the dorm was dome-like and made of stained glass which coruscated prettily beneath the light of the setting sun. Velvet tapestries and plush rugs bedecked the entire lounge area; the warm colour scheme of the furnishing complemented the gauzy scarlet curtains etched with gold embroidery. Tassel cushions and oblong bolsters littered the carpeted floor but were strategically situated near the lanterns and lamps illuminating the common space for students wanting to unwind with a book. 

Everything about the place was ostentatious but tastefully so. 

Due to the special occasion, decorations were strung up around the marble pillars and the lights were dimmed down to set the atmospheric mood for a party. Refreshments and snacks had also been laid out in a delectable buffet spread on a long table spanning across half of the room; the sight of it evoking positive reactions from the newly arrived students.

"Nice, Jamil already set up the place!" Kalim remarked, clapping his hands in delight. "Now, let's get the party started!"

At the mention of her favourite character, Cuifen perked up.

Holy shit, she was going to meet Jamil Viper. She _definitely_ didn't regret picking Scarabia as her dorm now.

Just as she was about to break away from the main group, a hand curled around her forearm, stopping her. When she did an about-face, she was met with the sight of Kalim looking up at her with his vibrant scarlet eyes and a radiant beam. He was now completely dry despite being soaked five minutes ago so she assumed he must have used his magical pen to get rid of the water.

"Hey, since you're the only girl here, I was wondering if you'd like a private room. Normally, first-years room with at least two other dorm-mates but I don't think you'd be comfortable with that."

Cuifen smiled back at him—an instinctual response to the good-natured albino.

"I appreciate the thought but it's fine. I don't think it will be fair to others if I get a room all to myself. I can clearly take care of myself if that's what you're worried about."

Kalim's brows drew together into an infinitesimal frown. "I'm sure they'll understand if you choose to room alone...But if you insist on having a roommate, you can stay with the vice dorm leader. Jamil Viper. I trust him the most out of everyone so maybe you'll feel the same way."

Outwardly, she looked calm but if you pried her open and took a peek inside her mind, it was utter chaos. You would most likely see mini Cuifens running around screaming their heads off. Like the characters in that Pixar movie "Inside Out".

"Sure," she said with a placid smile, though internally, she was shedding a tear of joy. She wasn't even going to question the dubious ethics of this school since it meant that she got to see Jamil first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.

"Great! I hope you enjoy your stay here in Scarabia," Kalim chirped, "come to me or Jamil if you need any help!"

Cuifen nodded in reply though she privately acknowledged that Kalim was the last person she would turn to for help regarding administrative matters in this dorm.

After sending her one last smile, the boy spun around and threw himself into the sea of people, already mingling with the other newcomers.

Taking in a deep breath of air, the girl navigated the throng of students who were eager to reach the dance floor or the snack table, jostling past them effortlessly thanks to her larger stature.

(Hell, she was actually the tallest out of them all.)

She kept an eye out for a certain boy as she headed towards a quieter spot. Parties and social gatherings weren't really her thing. Back in her previous life, her friends had to coerce her to join them at nightclubs in an attempt to get her out of isolation whenever she became a recluse after a great loss in a sports tournament or a spar. Dancing was fun and all but it bored her out after a while when the songs the DJ put on veered off into the catchy but overplayed category.

Normally, the best part of going to nightclubs for her was finding an attractive woman to bring home for the night. A night outing with her friends would always end with a stranger hanging off her arms and tumbling in her sheets but obviously, that wouldn't happen to her tonight.

She was eighteen, going on nineteen, while the majority of the people here were sixteen. Sleeping with any of them would warrant her a court case. She also wasn't sure what the legal age for consensual sex was in this world so she wasn't risking it. Not to mention, they were all boys here. She preferred those of the feminine gender and it was rare for her to find a boy pretty enough to fuck.

Heaving a sigh, she slunk into an alcove with a loveseat conveniently placed there. She melted into the plush upholstery just as the low thrum of a reggaeton melody entered the undercurrent of chattering. Currently, inside the dorm, it was like dancing amongst the Northern aurora with the smattering of scintillating neon lights surrounding them.

An array of blues, acid greens, hot pinks and gold swirled beneath the fog of opalescent dry-ice smoke which blanketed the room and blurred the mass of bodies into silhouettes.

Someone must have installed a smoke machine in here.

Soon, the party was in a full rollicking swing as everyone clambered onto the dance floor, fuelled by the sugary drinks and the addictive high of the festive ambience. The near-deafening music played over the dance floor as if it had fused with the bodies. The air was electrified with buzzing energy as every faceless dancer fed off each other's exhilaration.

Since most of the student population were underage, alcoholic drinks weren't permitted. In lieu of liquor, a free-flow of punch and high-energy drinks were provided.

What a pity; she could really go for something strong right now. Like a shot of vodka or rum.

She needed it to cope with the adrenaline rush of the day.

Being isekai'ed into a video game wasn't a bad thing per se, considering she didn't really care about returning to her world when this one was much better. Aside from missing the handful of friends she had made in school, there was no reason for her to go back to that reality. Sure, she loved them, but not enough to give up this fantasy.

Here, she was no one. She could start again with a clean slate, with a new identity, with a second chance at creating a better life for herself. One that wouldn't be controlled by anyone else.

She was free here.

Tossing her head back to breathe in a lungful of minty cool air, she shut her eyes and felt the tension slowly ebb out of her muscles. With the music and the lively conversations as background noise, she felt herself being lulled to sleep. Once the party was over, she would take her leave and make her way to Ramshackle Dorm. After all, it would be rude to leave before it was even an hour into the celebration.

She must have been dozing off for longer than expected because when she returned to the waking world, the music had stopped and the lounge area was utterly void of students. Watery moonlight filtering through the frosted windows enveloped the room in a crepuscular glow, creating dappled shadows that warped into images resembling outstretched claws.

Raking her fingers through her dishevelled hair, she got up and traipsed through the now eerily silent lounge area. The buffet table still hadn't been cleared and random scraps of confetti and streamers laid scattered on the ground, clinging to her shoes when she dragged her feet through the carpet. If she listened closely, she could hear faint voices and laughter above her through the floor separating each storey.

The welcome party must have just ended then.

A glance at a clock mounted to the wall in the lounge area told her it was just slightly over ten o'clock. Since classes started tomorrow, everyone probably either chose to retire early or had been herded to bed by the leaders.

Well, Kalim wouldn't do that. Jamil was the responsible one between the two so it was most likely him who cut the party short.

A sudden rustle of clothes from behind her alerted her of another presence in the room.

It was neither menacing nor welcoming. It was simply lurking nearby, watching, waiting.

She didn't even bother to turn around when she called out to them, "Is there something you want?"

The mellow voice that replied spurred Cuifen to face them in order to confirm their identity.

"I'm just here to clean up the mess. I didn't realise someone was still here."

When she espied the figure standing several feet away from her, her breath hitched in her throat.

Felled by the elysian vision before her, she could only utter "wow" in a reverent whisper as her world came to a standstill, tilting on its axis before gradually coming to a stop.

Bathed in the silvery moonlight that reflected off his long gossamery hair, Jamil Viper looked like an ephemeral dream at that moment. The muted glow of the lanterns in the room softened the sharp angles and contours of his patrician face, making his features look delicate and youthful. Although he was clad in a simple wine-red hoodie and baggy sweatpants, he somehow held her spellbound by his beauty.

On a normal basis, she could wax poetic about the sweep of his lashes, the lustre of his eyes, the curve of his lips and everything in between. But right now, no flowery words or metaphors came to mind as her brain had promptly short-circuited the instant she saw her favourite character made of flesh and blood instead of pixels standing right before her.

For a long while, they merely stared at each other wordlessly, neither of them willing to break the loaded silence yet.

The first to act was Jamil.

Closing the distance between them in a few long strides, he regarded Cuifen with a hint of wariness as well as curiosity. Once he was directly in front of her, she was granted a clear view of his pretty face peering up at her. Up close, she could see remnants of glittery eyeshadow smeared on his lids; the shimmer of gloss painted on his parted lips; the pale constellation-like freckles dotting the bridge of his nose; the murky grey depths of his hooded eyes; the intricate weaving of his braids; the smooth mocha hue of his sun-kissed skin and the glimmer of gold adorning his hair.

She was reeled back to reality by the sound of Jamil's voice

"So the rumours are true. There really is a girl in our midst," he said to no one in particular. "Your name is Cuifen, right?"

A little dazed, she watched as his rosebud lips moulded and shaped syllables she could no longer discern.

They were really pretty lips. Soft and puckered and sinfully red.

She was probably taking a little too long to respond because she was shaken out of her reverie by a tap on her shoulder.

"Are you all right?" Jamil said, tilting his head to the side. His rivulets of hair shifted along with the movement, framing his face and causing the gold accessories to clink together.

"Yeah, I'm okay, I'm just a little sleepy," she said, giving herself a mental pat on the back when she didn't stutter or squeak. "You're Jamil Viper, right?"

"Yes. Kalim told me I'm supposed to be your roommate." Jamil gave her a polite smile—it was more of a shape without an actual emotion behind the movement of his lips. "I've been searching for you for the past three hours. It's nice to finally meet you."

She hoped Jamil did not see the surprise on her face because she was not expecting an airhead like Kalim to remember to pass on that information. Perhaps she should give the prefect more credit than that.

She rubbed the nape of her neck sheepishly. "Sorry if I've troubled you, I kinda fell asleep during the party."

"It's fine," Jamil said with a dismissive wave of his hand, "I've found you now. Now let's get going, shall we? I'll show you our room."

"What about this?" Cuifen asked, gesturing in the general direction of the mess.

"Oh, like I said, I'll take care of it after I bring you upstairs." Jamil surveyed their surroundings with arms akimbo. She wasn't sure if it was a figment of her imagination but his whole figure seemed to deflate in exhaustion and his expression shuttered into a resigned one. "Come along then."

"I'll help you clean up." The offer escaped from her lips before her brain could catch up with her mouth.

A brief silence followed her statement.

Jamil's eyes widened by a fraction. "Oh, that's sweet of you but really, I can do it by myself. You should get some rest."

"I already did." Cuifen reminded him. "Anyways, if we clean up together, we can both go to bed earlier. I don't think my conscience will let me leave you behind to clean up this shit all by yourself."

Something akin to confusion and stunned incredulity flickered across his visage upon hearing her words.

Was it that unbelievable to him that someone was offering their assistance to him?

 _'That's just sad,'_ she thought bitterly.

She had developed a sense of protectiveness as well as admiration for Jamil after reading his backstory and learning about the shit he had gone through. If anyone else was in his position, she doubted they would be able to hold on and silently shoulder the accumulating burdens for as long as him.

The aching need to give Jamil the validation he deserved gnawed away at her, only growing stronger in the face of his helplessness—bound to years of servitude in a family legacy. She could only repress that urge by fiercely reminding herself that they were nothing but strangers right now. She would only be overstepping his boundaries if she tried to act like she understood his circumstances.

(Even if she really did.)

Instead of resuming their conversation, she turned away from him and began tidying up the cushions and bolsters tossed haphazardly around the lounge area to prove her point. Seeing that she was serious about her offer, Jamil got the message and refrained from protesting further.

In companionable silence, they worked together seamlessly like two parts of a well-oiled machine, organising the out-of-place furniture, clearing the clutter, storing away the table and dumping the paper plates in a bin. Jamil used his magic to speed up the process at certain times and thankfully, he did not ask any questions about her refusal to take out her magical pen.

She didn't even have one. That was the problem. She had intended to ask the headmaster for one earlier tonight but her falling asleep had ruined her own plans. Hopefully, she would be able to catch him the next morning.

Halfway through the clean-up, she discarded her annoyingly long ceremonial robes to the side. It was easier to move around now that she was only in her leggings and her favourite sleeveless black halter top. She wouldn't call herself vain but no one could deny that her toned biceps and her broad shoulders looked pretty damn good in this revealing shirt. Her arms were bared to the world, displaying the elaborate tattoos of curlicue thorns and roses winding up her muscles and stopping at the décolleté.

She had gotten them at a seedy tattoo parlour that didn't even ask for her identifications on a dare while drunk. It still happened to be one of the best decisions she had ever made in her life.

Vaguely, she could sense the weight of someone's gaze on her but couldn't really be bothered to question it

"Your tattoos are really beautiful." Came the quiet, dulcet voice of Jamil from the other end of the room.

Cuifen spared him a look whilst plucking up a napkin with a pair of metal thongs. "Thanks. And so are your braids." She redirected her attention to her current task. "You should teach me how to braid sometime. I only know how to tie my hair up in a ponytail or a bun."

Much to her pleasant surprise, Jamil responded with an affirmative after a heartbeat. "Sure, I don't mind."

They fell back into a comfortable silence, picking up the pace and flitting about the room like wraiths.

Within the hour, they had restored the entire common space to its original pristine state.

"Thank you for helping me," Jamil said in a small voice that sounded so uncharacteristic of him, pocketing his magic pen.

"No problem," she said. And she meant it. Watching Jamil move around with a certain grace evident even in the slightest of movements was rewarding enough and she had barely felt the bone-deep weariness in her.

Feeling her fatigue return, she mumbled a "good night" to Jamil and sauntered towards the exit. She stopped and looked back when she heard hasty footsteps against the carpeted floor as Jamil ran up to her.

"Wait, where are you going?" he asked with bemusement (and dare she say, concern) lacing his tone, placing a hand on her arm and retracting it just as quickly when he realised what he had done.

"Ramshackle Dorm," she said, the late hour making her more truthful than she liked.

Jamil frowned at her and she kind of wanted to kiss away the crease between his brows.

(Woah, where did that thought come from?)

"But why?" he continued, tucking a loose strand of hair behind his ear. It slipped out again. "It's already late. We should be heading to bed."

"I'm sleeping over there," she explained. She wasn't sure if Yuu and Grim would appreciate the extra company but whatever, she didn't care. She could fall asleep on the lounge sofa at this rate.

She wasn't sure if she was seeing things right but Jamil's face seemed to fall after hearing her.

"You...are you uncomfortable with the arrangement?"

Once her sleep-addled brain processed what Jamil just said, she eloquently blurted out, "Huh."

Taking her intelligent response as a confirmation for whatever he was suspecting, Jamil steamrolled on, "We can consider other options for you. Maybe the headmaster will assign you a private room if we ask him. I don't think we have any left but we can figure something out-"

Having heard enough, Cuifen raised a hand in the universal gesture for "stop". And surprisingly, he complied.

"I didn't say anything about being upset over rooming with you," she said without any inflexion. Jamil must have detected the steel in her voice as something in his eyes shifted. "In fact, Kalim suggested that I room with you and I agreed. If he says you can be trusted, I'm going to give his word the benefit of doubt and trust you by extension." She then added with an amused snort, "And it's not like I have anything to be worried about."

Both of them pointedly glanced at the cords of muscles twining her arms and Jamil tore his eyes away guiltily with a rose-pink blush dusting his cheeks.

In actuality, she did have something to worry about. Jamil's mind-controlling ability definitely raised a few red flags and she knew she should be afraid of him doing something unsavoury. But please, this was Jamil. Sure, he turned into a bitter person after years of self-inflicted emotional and mental torment and—quoting Cater Diamond and Ace Trappola—went into 'evil berserker mode' because of it. However, he wasn't the type to do something untoward like taking advantage of her in that manner.

(And no, this wasn't her favouritism talking when she said she trusted him.)

"Then, why are you going to Ramshackle Dorm? It's abandoned and run-down. You can't possibly sleep there."

Cuifen stifled a groan. She appreciated his concern but now was not the time. "The headmaster cleaned it up for someone just a few hours ago. That someone doesn't have magic and will be going home soon. But for now, they're staying in Ramshackle Dorm and I'm just going to keep them company since there are apparently ghosts over there."

Technically, she wasn't lying. She was just omitting the truth.

Jamil took his plump bottom lip between his teeth, deep in thought. "Well, if that's the case, I don't see a reason why I shouldn't give you permission to stay there for the night."

Cuifen resisted the urge to do a victory dance. "Mhm. I'll be back in the morning."

"Do you even know which room is ours?" Jamil folded his arms over his chest. "What if you get lost?"

"It's fine, I can just ask someone." Cuifen let loose a laugh before reaching out to teasingly pull the end of the strand that was dangling in front of his eye. "You worry too much, dude. Then again, with a master like Kalim, that's understandable."

Jamil's piercing gaze darted from her hand which was still holding onto his hair to the playful quirk of her lips. With a half-hearted sigh, he murmured, "How do you know?"

Cuifen blinked owlishly and took a second to realise her mistake.

"Well, I heard about it from here and there, you know," she covered up airily, waving her free hand.

"Hm," Jamil said, clearly unconvinced. Opting to drop the topic, he said, "Meet me before class starts. I have your timetable with me. You're in Class 1-A by the way."

"Got it." She let go of his hair after tucking the strand behind his ear for him. Her fingertips brushed against the shell of his ear in a feather-light touch as she pulled away. "I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Jamil."

Without waiting for a response, she pivoted on her heels and walked out, missing the way Jamil's glassy eyes trailed after her retreating back until she was too far for him to make out.

* * *

Song Jaemin

If he had to listen to Azul Ashengrotto prattle on about the differences between a salad fork and an oyster fork for another agonising minute, he was going to take one of those aforementioned forks and stab him with it. Fortunately for everyone in the room, the prefect moved on to more engaging topics thanks to Jade Leech steering him away from the subject of forks, sparing the residents of Octavinelle for the evening.

Needless to say, dinner in Octavinelle was eventful.

Once it was over, Jaemin snuck out (after evading the gimlet-eyed Leech twins) and headed to Ramshackle Dorm with the satchel he had woken up with slung around his torso and his phone in his hand. Earlier in the evening, while his roommate was taking a shower, he had opened up the satchel to check its content.

This led him to a thrilling discovery.

The satchel was _enchanted_. It provided him with anything his heart desired as long as he owned that particular item before. For example, if he wanted a MacBook Air (something he could never afford) and tried to take it out of his satchel, he would only get his old laptop.

This wasn't surprising since even magic had its limitations. However, he wasn't disappointed by that, considering he had fewer things to worry about now. Having a magical bag that gave him free things was definitely more than enough.

(His broke ass might have cried a little when he realised he basically had access to free food whenever he wanted.)

If he wanted clothes, food or any other miscellaneous items, he could pull it out immediately as long as it belonged to him before.

With a skip in his step, he trekked across the school compounds and arrived at Ramshackle Dorm after asking a Heartslabyul resident for directions. He had made it just in time to walk in on Crowley appointing Yuu and Grim as the handymen of the academy.

In summary, he had explained to Crowley about his and Cuifen's situation as well. He had lied to Crowley about Cuifen and him being from the same world as Yuu which baffled the man because. However, he didn't include the part where this world was nothing more than a video game. After all, things would get more complicated if he had to reveal that their world was different because Twisted Wonderland was a video game in it. And it would cause an existential crisis for the characters if they found out.

Though the headmaster was still befuddled about the two of them possessing mana despite claiming to be from the same alternate dimension as Yuu, he took it in stride and agreed to get them a magical pen each. Much to Jaemin's relief, Crowley also agreed to them remaining as students since they were already sorted into their respective dormitories and could integrate into the cohort by learning spells and catching up with the rest of their year-mates.

So that was one problem taken care of.

Yuu and Jaemin took the time to get to know each other better, connecting well since they were both in the same predicament. Together, they came up with theories about why Yuu still lacked magic unlike Jaemin and Cuifen though Jaemin knew the actual truth while Yuu remained in the dark about it. During their experimenting with Jaemin's bag. they discovered that his satchel could conjure up another enchanted bag for Yuu who gladly accepted it.

However, since Yuu had lost most of their memories, the phone they had obtained from their bag had a passcode they couldn't recall. Hence, Jaemin had to take out another version of his own phone to give to Yuu. After resetting that phone to erase Jaemin's personal data, he gave Yuu a brief run-down of how to use the Samsung phone.

In no time, Yuu could easily toggle between apps and understand the various functions in the settings. They also found out that they could make Grim behave for a period of time by streaming a cartoon on Youtube. Jaemin even managed to snap some cute pictures of Grim watching The Amazing World of Gumball with an open-mouthed expression, completely engrossed. Since Jaemin had given Grim a can of tuna earlier on, the monster had also warmed up to him. Not enough to act a little less obnoxious but enough to allow Jaemin to stroke its fur.

It was around eleven o'clock when the third member of their dimension-travelling team arrived.

Jaemin was taking a shower, Yuu was spreading out the blanket on the bed and Grim was finishing season one of TAWOG when the knob to Yuu's room turned. Before they could even react accordingly, the door opened to reveal a yawning Cuifen. Blinking her bleary eyes, she closed the door behind her and tossed herself onto Yuu's bed after muttering a greeting.

"We need to fix the locks in this dorm," Cuifen said, stretching languidly like a cat. Her arms flopped back on the mattress. "Fuck, I'm beat."

"Don't worry, I'll take a look at them tomorrow," Yuu said with an indulgent smile, patting a delightfully quiet Grim who was lying beside them on the head.

Cuifen's gaze drifted to the creature and she did a double-take when she finally noticed the phone in its paws.

"Is that racoon watching The Amazing World of Gumball or am I tripping?" she asked with comically widened eyes, scrambling up into a sitting position.

Cracking a laugh, Yuu proceeded to give her a recount of what Jaemin had discovered and his conversation with Crowley. The longer she listened, the wider her eyes became. Just as Yuu finished updating her on what had happened, Jaemin stepped into the room in a set of Minion-print pyjamas.

"Hey, you're finally here." Jaemin nodded in her direction as a greeting before crawling onto the bed, plopping down beside Cuifen. "Took you long enough."

Yuu almost wanted to point out that they were all taking up space on their bed but they thought better of it, realising that they didn't mind being physically close to the people they could tentatively call friends.

Sandwiched between Jaemin and Yuu, the girl grumbled in displeasure but made no move to push them away. "There was a party at Scarabia."

"Was it fun?" Yuu asked, rolling on their side to face Cuifen.

"Dunno. I fell asleep."

 _'How did you manage to fall asleep at a party...?'_ Both Yuu and Jaemin sweatdropped.

"I was busy cleaning up the dorm after the party," Cuifen continued, spreading out her arms like an oversized starfish and resting them on Jaemin and Yuu.

"Ah, you must be tired then. Why don't you take the bed?" Yuu offered, patting her arm.

Cuifen angled her head to the side to give them a grateful smile. "You're too nice, dude. But it's fine. Jaemin can just pull out an extra mattress for me with his bag, right? Speaking of your bag, can it give me my phone too?"

"Yeah, it's not like it works exclusively for me," said Jaemin.

"Cool. Do you know how you got that bag by the way?"

"No, I already had it when I woke up in the coffin."

A pensive silence descended on the three friends. For a while, the only sounds in the room were their breathing and the voices of the animated characters in the cartoon Grim was still bingeing.

"You know what, let's just leave this for another day. I'm dead tired," Yuu piped up, their eyes sliding shut and their arm wrapping itself around Cuifen's waist.

"You all wanna cuddle?" Jaemin asked groggily, already curling up into a ball and hugging Cuifen's arm.

"Heck yeah," Cuifen said and promptly fell asleep.

Not long after, the other two also slipped into a deep slumber. Whereas for Grim, it scooted up to hog the pillows while dragging Yuu's phone along with it, still transfixed by the colourful animation on the small screen. It was around four in the morning when Grim also succumbed to its exhaustion, slumping over and lying near the three humans' head.

Squeezed together on a tiny bed, the four slept on, snoring at varying volumes with Grim being the loudest.


	3. Chandeliers and Chaos

"Hey, it's time to get up. The ghosts are here."

Someone gently shook Jaemin's shoulder to wake him up. 

"Laze about too long and you will never get up again," an unfamiliar nasally voice commented.

"Just like us!" A harsh cackle pierced straight into Jaemin's eardrums, eliciting a groan from him.

Jaemin blindly reached for a pillow and covered his face with it. "Jesus, can't a man get his beauty sleep around here?"

"Amen," Yuu muttered from somewhere to his left.

Eventually, he was forcibly dragged out of bed by Cuifen and Grim. The monster was undeniably afraid of the ghostly entities since it was cowering behind Cuifen's larger form. Jaemin and Yuu, on the other hand, ignored the ghosts as they began making the bed together.

The ghosts could hardly be considered scary when they looked so cartoonish. They were the more annoying version of Casper the Friendly Ghost basically.

"We'll get rid of you eventually!" Grim declared, shaking its fists at the ghosts circling them.

"Okay, get out, I'm going to shower and I don't want you peeking in," Cuifen said, giving the nearest ghost a pointed glare.

The emaciated-looking ghost seemed to take offence to her words. "We're pranksters, not peeping Toms!"

"Good to know," Cuifen said flatly, grabbing Yuu's blue Kanken bag lying at the foot of the bed and pulling out towels and bottles of soap.

Once they were all done washing up, they laid out their uniform on the bed along with other outfits.

"So we just...mix and match?" Jaemin asked, ruffling his salmon-pink hair.

The dye had faded long ago but since he couldn't afford it, he hadn't bothered to indulge in a haircare routine. However, now that he had access to free stuff with his enchanted bag, he planned to retouch his hair after school.

Cuifen picked up her blazer and Scarabia armband. "I don't know, we're allowed to wear home clothes at my high school."

"I just wear my school uniform. We aren't allowed to customise it," Jaemin said, shucking off his Minion-print pyjamas to put on a pastel lilac turtleneck underneath the blazer.

Well, he never claimed to be a fashionista.

"As long as you show up with the school blazer, it should be fine," Yuu interjected, already clad in a woolly buttercream sweater and jeans.

Since Yuu was the school's handyman (for now), they didn't have to wear the uniform.

After a few more seconds of consideration, Cuifen paired her blazer with a white button-up shirt, a black tie and dress slacks. She wasn't even going to bother with a vest. That shit was suffocating.

"Oh, Yuu," Jaemin called, ducking behind an armchair to put on his trousers. "I almost forgot to ask you this but what pronouns do you go by?"

"Huh, oh, I'm fine with any pronouns but usually, I go by they/them," Yuu said, pleasantly surprised that he had bothered to clarify when most people would just assume.

Cuifen nodded. "Got it."

Once they were dressed, they headed to the dining room and sat down at the table which had been wiped clean by Yuu for a light breakfast of cereal and fruits. By the time they were done with their meal, Crowley was already waiting for them in the foyer. It made sense that he chose to stand instead of going to the lounge area since the furniture in there had several layers of dust powdered over it.

"Good morning!" he said in a sing-song voice, his mantle billowing around his ankles with each step he took. "Sleep well?"

"Like a baby," Yuu said, tone as dry as the Sahara desert.

"The bed nearly gave out when we first sat on it! Just how ramshackle did you let this place get? The ghosts are a menace, why can't do you something about it?" Grim's motor mouth began running the instant it saw the headmaster. "This is the worst!"

"It's a miracle I can even fall asleep in a shithole like this," Cuifen snarked, placing her hands on her hips.

Since Jaemin had his fair share of sleeping in dingy places, he had zero complaints about the place. In fact, he found the Ramshackle Dorm rather quaint and the spaciousness of it made up for its neglected state. His apartment flat was practically a shoe-box so to have this much space was a privilege he wouldn't pass up.

"Even after being displaced in another dimension, you youngsters sure are impudent. How wonderful!" Crowley said blithely. "I came to speak to Yuu and Grim about your work for today. As for the two of you..." Crowley paused to take out two magic pens from his breast pocket. "I came to give you these."

Jaemin and Cuifen thanked him profusely, inspecting the items with unconcealed awe.

Cuifen's Scarabia pen had stylized gilded designs on the ebony barrel and a garnet sat embedded at the tip. With its burgundy cast, the shade of the gem was duller than the arterial red of the rubies used for Heartslabyul but it was no less beautiful.

Jaemin's Octavinelle pen had curlicued silver etchings on the metallic rose gold cover with a diamond at the end. The gemstone seemed to capture the entire colour spectrum in its depths, blinking in the daylight when he turned it in his hand.

"Oh, and that reminds me. Since you have no prior exposure to magic, I think you may need some help honing your powers. Meet me in my office after school. I'll let you practise some basic spells to gauge your skill level and we can work our way up from there. After all, a strong foundation is vital when it comes to learning magic. I'll teach you everything you need to know to adapt to this world for I am oh-so gracious~."

Upon hearing him, the duo exchanged bright grins. Yuu looked happy for them while Grim harrumphed and crossed its arms over its chest, simmering in jealousy.

"Your kindness truly knows no bounds, sir," Jaemin quipped, kissing ass harder than he had ever kissed ass because this eccentric man was going to be the only (un)reliable adult figure in their life from this point forth.

It was best to stay on Dire Crowley's good side.

"Ohoho, I'm glad you think so, my boy," Crowley preened, looking immensely pleased.

Yuu gave Jaemin a knowing look, Cuifen shook her head in amusement and Grim just muttered something under its breath. 

"I suggest you go ahead so you won't be late for your first day." Crowley bid them farewell as they moved towards the exit. "Good luck and have a good day of learning!"

As they ambled down the winding cobblestone path, the duo talked things over and agreed on making a pit-stop at Scarabia dorm after Cuifen informed Jaemin of her current living accommodations. When they passed through the time-worn rusty gates surrounding Ramshackle Dorm, they mentally noted to fix the locks with the help of Wikihow and YouTube.

"You're rooming with Jamil Viper!?" Jaemin squeaked after hearing about her rooming situation.

"Mhm."

"Damn...I want to room with my favourite characters too," Jaemin said with a pout.

"Who are your favourite characters?"

"Erm, the top five are Divus Crewel, Riddle Rosehearts, Ruggie Bucchi, Jack Howl and Rook Hunt. I kinda like the Leech twins but I'm not going up to them unless I'm held at gunpoint. They're _scary._ "

Cuifen shot him a smirk. "So you're mostly into furries and kinky creeps, got it."

"EXCUSE ME! Riddle isn't a creep!"

"That's why I said _mostly._ "

"Who's _your_ top five?"

"Jamil Viper, Riddle Rosehearts, Lilia Vanrouge, Epel Felmier and Leona Kingscholar. Kalim would have been on the list if he wasn't so gullible and indirectly making Jamil's life worse but other than that, I like his personality. It's easy to open up to him."

"Oh my God, you're into twinks!" Jaemin screeched, bursting into laughter.

" _Pretty boys._ I'm into pretty boys. And really? Is that your only take-away from what I just said?" Cuifen corrected him, playfully shoving him in the shoulder. She overlooked the fact that she was stronger than most eighteen-year-olds so she pushed him hard enough that he nearly crashed into a fellow Scarabia member coming out of the Hall of Mirrors.

"I'm so sorry, bro!" Jaemin hollered at the disgruntled boy. He then turned to Cuifen and hissed, "You nearly sent me flying, what the hell? How strong are you?" He proceeded to prod at her right bicep once, twice before squeezing the muscle and was stunned by what he felt. "My God, you're fucking ripped."

Cuifen shrugged. "I work out."

With jaws hanging open, Jaemin scanned her from head to toe but not in a suggestive manner, simply appraising. "What do your parents feed you...? What's your height?"

"Hm, 6'3."

Jaemin made a choked sound. His 169-centimetre tall ass could not relate.

They stepped into the mirror—the sensation of passing through the surface was akin to wading through water—and arrived at the Scarabia dormitories. Cuifen had to tug Jaemin along when he just stood there, gaping at the arabesque architecture of the dorm. She could understand his fascination with the artistic details of the decor but they really didn't have the time for her to take him on a tour around her dorm.

The first place they checked out was the kitchens since she was working with the assumption that Jamil would get up early to prepare Kalim's lunch. And she was right. He was already wearing his school uniform with an apron over it while bustling about in the rather sizeable kitchen, ladling food into lunchboxes while a stack of dirty pots and pans cluttered the already overflowing sink.

Inhaling the aroma of fresh herbs, Jaemin and Cuifen watched from the doorway as Jamil turned around to place the packed containers on the granite counter of the kitchen island, catching sight of them as he did so. A flicker of recognition appeared in his slate grey eyes when they landed on Cuifen and a gentle smile stretched across his lips, smoothing out the stress lines on his face.

"Good morning, Jamil-senpai," Cuifen greeted, tacking on the honorific and cringing inwardly. She might be older than him but he was still her upperclassman so propriety required her to use that respectful (but sexualised) term.

"Good morning," he responded softly, gaze cruising down to Cuifen and Jaemin's linked arms. Although it might not be obvious to most people, Jaemin's keen eyes noticed how Jamil's smile began fraying at the edges and that the tautness of his jaws wasn't there before.

Getting the memo, Jaemin separated their arms and strode over to sit on one of the high bar stools. He then nodded his head in Jamil's direction to Cuifen as if to say: "Go talk to him". Cuifen cleared her throat and walked up to Jamil who shot him an unreadable look before redirecting his focus to the girl.

 _'Don't look at me like that, man. I'm as straight as a circle.'_ Jaemin awkwardly averted his gaze to give them some semblance of privacy while they conversed. Damn, he probably shouldn't have come along. He felt like a third-wheel cockblocking them.

Jamil washed his hands at the basin and dried them on his hoodie before procuring a slip of paper from the front pocket. "This is your timetable. You have Alchemy with Professor Crewel in thirty minutes' time."

"Oooh, I have that for the first period too. Both of us must be in Class 1-A then," Jaemin stated, checking his own schedule.

"Thank you," Cuifen told Jamil, perusing the paper briefly. She then looked to Jaemin with a sly quirk of her lips. "How do you feel about meeting your favourite DILF, hm?" she spoke in English so that Jamil would not understand what she just said.

"I'm fucking psyched about it, oh my god." Jaemin didn't squeal but it was a near thing. His evident excitement elicited a snicker from Cuifen and they both winked conspiratorially at each other.

Jaemin instantly regretted making that gesture when he saw Jamil's reaction to it. The disappointment was subtle but it was definitely there. His smile had completely disappeared like a candle flame snuffed out in one breath and he was staring at the two of them with a defeated look of acceptance, probably misconstruing their teasing affection as flirting.

Jaemin wanted to tear out his hair. To avoid causing more misunderstandings (and to give them some alone time), the pink-haired boy got up from his seat to take his leave. But first, he needed an excuse.

"Oh shit, I just remembered I left my, er, phone back in my dorm. I'm going to go back and get it so just, go ahead without me, _dude_ ," he said, emphasising the platonic term. "So yeah, I'm going to...go now." He began walking backwards and jabbed a thumb in the general direction of the exit. "Okay bye, have fun!" With that, he dashed out of the kitchens and did not look back.

Cuifen and Jamil stared at the open doorway, caught off guard by his sudden departure.

"Well, okay," Cuifen mumbled to herself, puzzled by the blatant lie he had told them. Ah, whatever. She was going to have to get used to his odd behaviour since they were going to see each other very often.

Shrugging it off, she cast her gaze towards Jamil and found him already peering up at her, face carefully blank and lips pressed into a thin line.

"So, was that the...friend you were speaking of yesterday?"

"Er, no, Jaemin's not the one. He can use magic. But he's also one of my friends."

She wasn't quite sure which labels to use to describe their relationship since she had only known him for a day. "Best friends" sounded like a far stretch and "acquaintances" sounded too lacking since they had practically cuddled up against each other last night. Undoubtedly, she was comfortable with his presence as she had never felt so well-rested in someone else' company until she had shared a bed with him and Yuu.

Since they had to work together to ensure the smooth progress of the canon storyline, they could be considered allies slash partners-in-crime in a sense. Jaemin seemed to be an okay guy aside from being too clingy and hogging up all the space on the mattress. Out of all the people she could have been transported to another dimension with, Jaemin wasn't that bad of a choice.

Jamil nodded slowly. "I see." Abruptly, he turned away from her and went over to the basin, rolling up his sleeves and picking up a damp sponge.

For a while, only the splashing of water from the tap and the clatter of cutlery filled the silence.

Inspecting the stack of bowls and plates, Cuifen sidled up to his side and positioned herself behind the basin before reaching for a sponge and wetting it under the running tap. From the corner of her eyes, she could make out Jamil stopping in the middle of scrubbing a pan but paid no mind to it. She had never been averse to this chore since the repetitive motions of washing the dishes and setting them to the side were rather therapeutic.

"You don't need to help me again," Jamil insisted, brows drawing together.

Not in the mood to entertain his protests, Cuifen paused to cup her ear with her right hand which wasn't covered in soap suds. "What was that? I think I heard something." She waited a few seconds before dropping her hand. "Oh well, it's probably just the wind." Without breaking her placid facade, she returned to the task at hand with a single-minded efficiency, pretending to have never heard him in the first place.

An almost inaudible huff that could pass for a soft laugh could be heard after a beat of silence. "You're impossible."

Unable to suppress the grin blooming on her lips, she ducked her head to let her hair drape over the side of her face like a curtain, hiding her expression from Jamil. As they worked in tandem, their shoulders often brushed against each other but not enough to the point where it would hinder their movements so they didn't bother to shift away.

At every chance she got, Cuifen deliberately brushed up against him, taking comfort in the warmth emanating from Jamil. Perhaps she wasn't being too discreet because Jamil wound up nudging her back, his cheeks colouring pink as he gave her a half-hearted glower. This started an on-and-off game where they would take turns fighting for more space, treading on each other's foot or pushing the other away by the elbows like a bunch of rowdy middle-schoolers.

In a matter of fifteen minutes, every crockery was cleaned and the kitchen was also spick and span once more despite getting distracted by their game. They called it a truce as the last dish was put away though Cuifen couldn't help but have the last say by hip-bumping him out of the sink area when he had his guard down, earning an uncharacteristic squeal from him.

After letting out a brief laugh and sprinkling her in the face with water from his hands, Jamil glanced at the small desk clock on the kitchen island. "You should go soon or you'll be late. Do you know how to get there?"

Cuifen hung his apron up for him with a smile dancing across her lips, still riding high on her victory after getting Jamil to laugh. "The Alchemy classroom is in the West building, right? Yeah, I think I can find my way there."

Jamil hummed in response, giving her another disarming smile that she wanted to frame and display in a museum if given the chance to do so. "Thank you for your help again, Cuifen."

"That phrase is going to get redundant real soon so save it," Cuifen said with a fleeting chuckle. _Because I'm going to be helping you every chance I get if it is within my power_ , went unsaid.

"See you later, Jamil-senpai." With that, she exited the kitchen swiftly and soundlessly like a breeze that comes and goes, already out of the door and far out of his reach by the time the boy realised she was gone.

She left behind no traces that she had ever stepped foot in the kitchen aside from the echo of her laugh and the foreign warmth filling up the cavity of his chest.

* * *

Classes could only be described as uneventful. Just as Riddle had told Deuce and Ace in canon, first year in Night Raven College was more theory-based than practical. There was no wand-waving, no recital of incantations, no magical explosions and basically, no fun.

During Alchemy, Jaemin was too busy ogling at Professor Crewel to even learn about the lesson's module while Cuifen idly doodled Jamil's name in the margins of her notebook. During History of Magic, Jaemin dozed off within the first five minutes of the period while Cuifen pulled faces at Professor Trein's pet cat. During Arithmetics, Jaemin actually cried after reading the first problem sum while Cuifen took one look at the questions and handed in a blank paper to their foul-tempered professor with a hook for his left hand.

They were just taking it nice and easy, finding no true obligation to invest their time and effort into theory-work. For common subjects such as science, math and arts, they already knew their entire syllabus since they had finished high school and the topics tested here were exactly the same as the ones back home.

When it came to lessons that involved magic usage, they would actually pay more attention but if not, they would just stone in silence. Since they planned to live out the rest of their lives in this world which practically revolved around magic, they needed to buck up and glean as much knowledge as they could about it.

For lunch, they sat together at a random table, finishing their food quickly since Cuifen was discomfited by the numerous looks she had received over a span of ten minutes. They could hardly enjoy the premium food available in the cafeteria since they weren't taking the time to savour the taste of it.

Once the school day was over, they were both drained from having to adjust to an academic environment that was so different from the one they were used to. It was different in a good way though. The novelty of being able to use magic still hadn't worn off (it probably never would) and they still couldn't wrap their minds around that concept. Under Crowley's tutelage, they were bound to catch up with their cohort-mates eventually and they couldn't wait to learn as much as they could about the newfound magic in them.

It almost slipped their mind that a critical turning point in the plot was coming right up. They received a reminder in the form of Grim and Yuu nearly barreling into them when they were about to leave the classroom half an hour after their classmates did due to their Arithmetics professor making them stay back to finish their work.

"Orraaaa! Where's Ace? We're not gonna let you hide away!" Grim stopped short when it finally noticed that the classroom was entirely vacant. "Ehhh, there's nobody here!?"

"Ace left the moment class was over," Jaemin said, massaging his forehead that had begun aching after solving so many problem sums. "He's probably at his dorm right now. It's behind the East building if you want to go look for him."

He really wasn't in the mood to deal with the A-Deuce shenanigans after a tiring day of classwork. He just wanted to go back to Ramshackle Dorm and dye his hair before taking a nap. But nope, he still had to deal with the crackheads' bullshit and meet Crowley afterwards.

"That bastard really ditched us!" Grim snarled, its impish face contorting into a furious expression. "We're going after him!"

Taken along for the ride (literally since Cuifen was dragging him around like a ragdoll with her inhuman arm strength), Jaemin had no choice but to follow his three friends to the Hall of Mirrors so that Grim could unleash its so-called righteous fury on Ace. If his movements were more listless and his responses were more lacklustre than usual, they did not bring it up. When they finally caught Ace who was about to escape to the refuge of his dorm, Jaemin was ready to keel over and sleep for a century like Sleeping Beauty.

Meeting Ace and Deuce did kind of energised him as their comedic antics made him laugh but he was tired out again when they had to search for Grim after its little disappearing act. As expected, they eventually found it hanging onto the chandelier in the cafeteria. Knowing how this would end, Jaemin took several steps back from the potential crime scene, wanting no part in this dumbassery.

"Should we stop them?" Cuifen asked as Deuce lifted a petrified Ace into the air with his magic pen.

"Nah. They need to fight the weird ghost dwarf thing to build up their bond and become best friends," Jaemin answered.

Cuifen nodded in understanding and opted to remain an onlooker like Jaemin. Silently judging the characters' idiocy, they watched from the safety of the sidelines as Ace hurtled straight into the chandelier and the entire thing collapsed as a result of the collision and the extra load.

With an ear-splitting crash, the hanging crystal prisms, the metal branched frames and the lamp bulbs all shattered into small fragments upon impact. Everyone's screams blended into an unpleasant orchestra; the onlookers were forced to take shelter under the nearest tables from the torrent of glass and gems raining down on them and the culprits were left to suffer the aftermath in the middle of the wreckage, utterly bruised and battered.

"You know what, those morons are pretty entertaining as a viewer but as an in-game character..." Jaemin said breathlessly, sticking his head out from under a table and gawking at the disaster laid out before them. "I kinda relate to Yuu now."

Yuu and Cuifen crawled out of their hiding spot from the table adjacent to his, grimacing at the pile of debris.

"I-I messed up! I didn't think about the landing!" Deuce lamented with doe eyes full of fear as he took in the sight before him. "We're so dead!"

"Are you more partial to rosewood or cherrywood for your coffin?" Cuifen said jokingly. Jaemin made a mental note to pull her aside after this and give her a lesson on how to determine when was the appropriate time to crack a joke.

"Rosewood," Deuce replied weakly as he wrung his hands, distraught.

"ARE YOU AN IDIOT!?" Ace bellowed, coughing violently while rising to his unsteady feet. "Just what was going through your head when you decided to yeet me at the chandelier!?"

Yuu gingerly stepped into the ruined remains of the ancient chandelier and fished out a semi-conscious Grim. "If the headmaster finds out about this, we're fucked."

"You don't say," a baritone voice that was far too deep to belong to any of them said darkly.

Jaemin paled. "Oh shit."

Like a child that was caught with a hand in the cookie jar, they craned their necks slowly in the direction of the voice to be greeted with a clearly incensed Crowley.

"Just. What. Exactly. Are. You. _DOING!?"_ Crowley's voice crescendoed into a frequency that was out of a typical human's vocal range, causing them to wince and cover their ears.

"Ffnyaa~. The room is spinning..." Grim said faintly.

"You weren't satisfied with just damaging the statue so you decided to destroy the chandelier!? This is the last straw. I will have all of you expelled!"

"Erm, just to clarify but Cuifen and I have nothing to do with-" Jaemin gestured with both of his hands to the damaged chandelier behind them. "-this."

Upon hearing that, Crowley nodded in acknowledgement and excluded the two onlookers from his stern talking-to. Everyone else suffered under his wrath, being threatened with expulsion for Ace and Deuce and eviction for Yuu and Grim. Although they knew things would turn out for the better, Jaemin and Cuifen still felt a second-hand fear on the characters' behalf, commiserating with their individual motivations and desperation to remain in Night Raven College.

For Deuce, it was to prove to his mother that he had turned over a new leaf.

For Yuu, it was to remain somewhere familiar with a somewhat helpful ally who was their only hope in returning to their world.

For Grim, it was to enrol into the school and accomplish his life goal of becoming an esteemed magician.

For Ace, well, they weren't quite sure what his reasons were. Maybe the shame of being expelled from his brother's alma mater served as adequate motivation.

After much pleading and negotiation, Crowley gave Ace and Deuce a chance to rectify their mistakes by ordering them to retrieve a magic crystal from the Dwarf's mine. Crowley even encouraged Cuifen and Jaemin to tag along with them for a learning experience though they suspected that he was just finding an excuse to shirk off his tutoring duties for today.

Ah, well, they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. They were too exhausted for extra lessons today.

After hearing Crowley's compromise, the two students facing the risk of expulsion accepted the task readily, springing to action and making a beeline for the Mirror Chamber.

"Aight, good luck, I'm heading back to Ramshackle Dorm," Jaemin said with a languid wave.

"You're not coming along?" Cuifen asked, disbelieving of the fact that he was passing up an opportunity to go on an adventure.

"What's the point? I don't even know what my magic can do yet. What's the point of going there and being useless in the face of danger? Besides, five of us is a crowd. Excluding the cat, of course."

Seeing the rationale behind his decision, Cuifen relented. "I'll go along with them in case Yuu needs protection."

"Just say you want to be a part of all the action and go."

"That too," Cuifen admitted with a laugh. "Well, I'm off. See ya!"

"See ya."


	4. Mines and Monsters

"Mirror, mirror on the wall! Light our way to Dwarfs' Mine!" Deuce said in an orotund voice.

On command, their reflections in the mirror rippled like the disturbed surface of a pond.

They took turns to dive into the pocket dimension created by the Dark Mirror, feeling the essence of mana clinging to their skin when they emerged on the other side. Cuifen managed to nail the landing perfectly while Yuu and Grim stumbled and the A-Deuce duo nearly fell flat on their face.

Grabbing Deuce by his elbow to set him upright, Cuifen stepped forward and assessed their surroundings, on the look-out for anything amiss. A large forested clearing with a rickety cottage and a small brook could be seen in the distance. When nothing popped out of the shadows to maul them, the motley group of five relaxed slightly but still kept their guard up as they moved forward.

Yuu held Grim closer to their chest, looking up at the dense canopy of the woods. It was completely impenetrable, allowing little to no sunlight to pass through. "Wow...this place sure is scary."

"So you're afraid of a little darkness then?" Ace sniggered. "Need me to hold your hand?"

"While the offer is much appreciated, my hands are a little busy right now," Yuu riposted with a dash of sass.

Cuifen and Deuce tried to suppress a snort of amusement at their exchange.

"Anyway, should we go check out that cottage?" Yuu asked.

"No, there's no point. It looks abandoned," Cuifen said, wanting to hurry along to the Dwarfs' Mine. "Let's just keep walking until we see something that looks like a cave."

Seeing the logic in her words, the rest of the crew complied and carried on walking past the cottage and into a thicket of trees. After ten more minutes of following the forest trail littered with twigs and leaf clusters, they reached the mouth of a dilapidated mine which was nearly caved in due to the crumbling wooden structure near its opening.

This mine had "death trap" written in block capital letters on a neon sign. And they were going to walk right into it. For the umpteenth time, Cuifen wondered how Crowley could be utterly ignorant of the spirit residing in the deserted mines. He was the principal for fuck's sake. Shouldn't he at least check that the place he was sending two of his students to wasn't lorded over by a bloodthirsty monster?

What if the characters had actually died in canon? Damn, imagine the legal paperwork he would have to go through. Realistically, he would be sued and removed from his position as the headmaster, that was for sure.

Crowley really wasn't the most responsible adult, was he?

"W-We're going in there?" Grim squeaked, stopping Cuifen's morbid train of thought.

"Scared? Lame," Ace said, sticking out his tongue.

"Ace, shut it," Cuifen said in a tone that brooked no arguments.

Ace clamped his mouth shut with an audible click.

"Oooh, he just got owned," Yuu whispered.

Grim let out a rumbling growl, rising to the bait. "I'm not scared at all! I'm taking the lead! You guys, follow me!" It hopped out of Yuu's hold and darted into the cave, intending to prove a point.

Pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation, Cuifen beckoned to them to follow _her_ lead and stepped inside the death trap. The air in the mine was stale and musty, forcing them to breathe through the mouth as they crossed the threshold and ventured deeper. A faint drip-drop of water from an indeterminable source echoed in the cave, sounding a tad too loud for Cuifen's highly attuned hearing.

Just as they were nearing the metal tracks leading into the mine, they were assaulted by three spectres flying out from behind a stone pillar.

With a banshee-like shriek, the first ghost advanced towards them. "Our first guests in ten years!"

"Make yourselves at home!" Another ghost chimed in. "For eternity~!"

"If you don't get out my face, so help me God I will personally send you three fuckers to hell." Cuifen's lips torqued into a fierce snarl as she marched straight through the ghost's intangible body. She whipped around when she did not hear any footsteps behind her. "What are you guys waiting for? Christmas? Come on, they can't hurt you."

"I don't know who is scarier here," Deuce said, sotto voce.

"I know right," Ace murmured and they shared a pointed look, inwardly acknowledging that this was the first thing they agreed on. Huffing and crossing their arms in tandem, they turned away from each other with matching scowls on their faces.

"Coming," Yuu said weakly, jogging up to her and grabbing her arm.

They felt the safest when they were by her side and if the others were going to ridicule them for it, so be it. Yuu had a healthy sense of self-preservation and if sticking to the strongest, bravest and the most sensible one in their group meant surviving this ordeal, hell yeah, they were totally going to cling on her. There was no reason to be ashamed of saving your own ass.

Cuifen arched her brow at her friend who was sticking to her arm like a limpet but she made no move to push them off. She received a grateful smile for that and pretended not to notice how Yuu tightened their vice-like grip on her when they were plunged into darkness.

"We must be really far inside the mine now," Deuce pointed out. "I can barely see anything. How are we going to find the crystal at this rate?"

In a flash, Yuu had brandished their phone and was using its flashlight to light their way.

"Well, let's go," Grim said through chattering teeth.

Barely two minutes into their search for the crystal, the inevitable argument between Ace and Deuce ensued.

Yuu tried to ameliorate the situation with a soothing voice before it could escalate into a physical brawl but to no avail. The two hotheads continued their shouting match with Grim adding fuel to the fire by making spiteful comments and if Cuifen wasn't already expecting it, she wouldn't have heard the chilling mournful sounds.

_**"Won't...have...stone"** _

"Shit, do you guys hear that?" Cuifen said sternly, holding out a hand to break them up.

"How can I hear anything when this bastard-" Ace began snappishly but was silenced by a scathing glare from the girl.

"If you shitheads stop your ridiculous man-posturing and listen, you will hear that godawful noise too," Cuifen seethed.

Somewhat chastened by her scolding, the two boys acquiesced and put their quarrel on hold in favour of looking into the distance to ascertain where the noise originated from.

_**"...let...the...mine!"** _

"Who said that?" Ace stammered.

_**"LEAVE...MINE...MINE!"** _

The colour gradually drained from Deuce's face. "It's getting closer."

From the darkness came the sound of heavy limbs being dragged across the undergrowth. Whatever it was, it was massive. Now and then, a thump akin to the sound a body would make when colliding with a solid structure echoed in the cave. This creature was neither lithe nor blessed with night vision.

"What is it?" Grim said in an undertone, afraid to disturb the fraught silence that had settled upon them.

All of a sudden, like the head-splitting crack of thunder, a roar pealed out from deep within the mine. It served as a warning for the hulking humanoid figure entering their peripheral view and leaving destruction in its wake as it tore up everything in its path.

Everyone froze, falling into a shock-induced stupor.

 **_"THE STONE_** **_IS MINE."_ **

"EVERYONE, RUN!" Deuce yelled and when he turned around, no one was beside him.

They were already far ahead, running for their lives.

Deuce threw up his hands in the air while running after them. "SERIOUSLY!?"

He caught up to them just in time as a tremor sent a shockwave through the ground, threatening to bring down the entire place. Pieces of rock showered down upon them, eliciting more screams from the teenagers.

"What the hell is that!?" Ace demanded, pumping his arms up and down as he ran. "Its face is literally a broken flask dripping with some black shit!"

"NO ONE SAID ANYTHING ABOUT A MONSTER BEING HERE!" Grim wailed, holding onto Yuu's shoulders for dear life.

"You're a monster too, Grim!" Yuu huffed, struggling to keep up with their fitter companions.

Cuifen looked over her shoulder to see the monstrous entity lumbering after them. "Didn't you hear what it said!? It mentioned something about a stone belonging to it!"

"WHAT!?" Ace and Deuce said in unison. The latter completely halted in his tracks the instant he processed the implications behind her statement."

Deuce inhaled sharply. "IT MUST BE GUARDING THE LAST CRYSTAL!"

"No way!” Grim shook its head vigorously. “I may be a genius, but there’s no way we’ll win against that!”

"I'm going back!" Deuce said resolutely, his jaws set taut and eyes alit with conviction. "We'll be expelled if we don't bring back that crystal!"

"YOU'LL DIE, YOU LUNATIC!" Ace hollered.

"I'D RATHER BE DEAD THAN EXPELLED!"

Cuifen clicked her tongue in annoyance and turned back to chase after Deuce. "That suicidal idiot."

Just then, a spark of light at the very end of the tunnel caught their eye. Realising he had found what they were seeking, a delighted gasp escaped from Deuce.

With a dogged determination, he sped up. "I SEE IT! THE CRYSTAL IS RIGHT THERE!"

Fortunately, he didn't make it very far. Cuifen caught up to him easily since years of gruelling training allowed her to surpass Deuce in terms of athletic skills (and because she had longer legs). After catching him by the back of his collar, she lugged him back to the entrance, ignoring his choked protests and the fact that she was borderline strangling him.

The abomination let loose another animalistic bellow and Cuifen quickened her pace, ignoring the stinging pain of her muscles stretching, her lungs burning and her feet throbbing as her body went into autopilot mode.

**_"WON'T GIVE...LEAVE...IT'S MINE!"_ **

"You heard the big guy," Cuifen said through gritted teeth, letting go of Deuce before hastily seizing his arm instead. "He won't part with that crystal without putting up a fight so we need to be smart about this. As hard as that might be for you."

Deuce let out an affronted squawk.

"We're retreating for now. We're going to come up with a plan that doesn't involve you being a reckless dumbass!"

She heard a furious "damn" from behind her and knew that she got through to the boy when he let himself be hauled along like a ragdoll. Albeit, he was clearly upset about giving up before he could even try. But Cuifen didn't care if she bruised his pride. She simply didn't have the patience to watch them charge at the monster and be pathetically defeated under a minute before realising they need a plan.

Hand in hand (literally), they stumbled out of the mine, breath coming out in rapid short bursts from over-exertion. The other three were waiting for them at the mouth of the cave, ashen-faced and sweating.

"Let's just give up and go home!" Ace dug his fingers into his hair, frustrations mounting. "There's no way we can win against that thing."

"So you are just going to give up like a coward? Don't screw with me, man. There's a magic crystal in there!" Deuce said brusquely.

"Don't act all high-and-mighty when you can't do jack-shit, asshole!" Ace retorted, bristling as he stalked towards his dormmate.

Gearing up for another fight, Deuce growled, his normally serious expression gaining a feral edge to it. "Come at me, you fucking-"

"Woah there, does Deuce have a split personality or what?" Grim remarked, blinking its round eyes owlishly.

That exclamation of surprise seemed to reign him back in. In a blink of an eye, Deuce seemed to regain tenuous control of his emotions again and the muscles in his shoulders and neck slackened. Dropping his aggressive stance, Deuce cleared his throat, looking rightfully ashamed of himself.

"Sorry, I lost my composure..."

"And I lost my patience." Surprisingly, it was Yuu who said that in a sharp tone that drew a collective flinch from everyone.

Seeing the level-headed teenager regarding them with open animosity left their skin crawling with dread. They all took a step back, fearing the worst after that outburst.

"There are so many things wrong about you guys and you don't see it!" Yuu spat. They then rounded on Grim like an enraged panther when it demanded to know why they were getting so worked up.

"You want to know what my problem is with you, Grim? _Listen up_ ," Yuu continued. "You want to be a student so badly but you don't deserve to be one with the way you behave! You're obnoxious, prideful and plain annoying! You act like you're better than the school rules—cherry-picking which ones to follow and which ones to break and causing trouble for all of us! Do you think you'll ever be allowed to be a student with an attitude like that!? That's some audacity right there."

Grim visibly shrunk in on itself, unable to refute that statement.

Yuu proceeded to point an accusatory finger at Ace and Deuce and they gulped, knowing it was their turn for a tongue-lashing.

"Don't think that neither of you is at fault as well." Their voice becoming deadly calm. "Ace, you don't know how to shut up. You're mean, you're inconsiderate, you're brash and you look down on everyone, thinking it's fun to call them names and provoke them when really, you're just making yourself look like a huge dickbag!"

Cuifen couldn't quite stifle the gasp she let out. Her sweet summer child just cursed.

"Deuce, you've got a good heart but you don't think about the consequences of your actions and that's infuriating."

The aforementioned boy hung his head, the corner of his lips pulling downwards in a despondent moue.

"And me..." Yuu deflated in resignation, their shoulders hunching. "I'm useless. I could have stopped Grim from getting into fights, skipping duties and disrespecting people but I didn't. I didn't do anything to stop all this shit from happening when I could have at least kept an eye on Grim like I was supposed to."

A pang of guilt settled in Cuifen's chest. Right, it wasn't fair for them to expect Yuu to keep enduring all the tension and to be in charge of breaking up the petty fights when they were just a kid too. A kid that had been displaced in another universe, being forced to quickly adapt to their new living situation with no proper support system to be there for them.

When Cuifen turned to the rest to gauge their emotions based on their body language and facial expressions, they all seemed contrite as well.

"You're right," Deuce admitted, dragging a hand down his face. "We didn't mean to bring you into this mess. But we did and that's wrong of us."

Ace grunted in agreement.

"I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have lashed out like that. It's just..." Yuu's words tapered off into an awkward silence as tears welled up in their eyes.

"We get it, it's a stressful situation and everyone is high-strung right now," Cuifen said placatingly, walking over to Yuu to pat their head. "Let's take a moment to breathe and calm down before coming up with a plan, alright?"

They all complied, falling silent and resting their sore feet. For a long while, everyone stewed in their own thoughts. None of them dared to break the silence just yet when the oppression hanging in the air was still too palpable.

At long last, Ace took the initiative to get the ball rolling.

"So. What do you propose we do?" Ace asked Cuifen.

A devious gleam shone in Cuifen's eyes.

She hadn't spent the past ten minutes or so daydreaming or wallowing in self-pity like the rest of them were. "I have an idea. You won't like it."

"I'll take whatever I can get at this point," Ace grumbled under his breath.

* * *

"I TAKE IT BACK. I DO NOT LIKE THIS IDEA!" Ace shrieked in terror, narrowly dodging a side-swipe by the Overblot abomination.

Its claws nearly grazed his shoulder as he flung himself behind a formation of rocks, chest heaving up and down rapidly.

_"We need a distraction," Cuifen had told them earlier on, the scheming look on her face sending chills down their spine._

_"Okay?" Deuce said slowly. "What kind of distraction?"_

_Cuifen's face split into a grin that spelt nothing but trouble. "A loud one."_

And that brought them to the present with Ace as the live bait.

"I'M NOT EVEN THAT LOUD!" Ace screeched, proving Cuifen's point when his voice reached the highest octave.

He shielded his face as chips of stalactites showered down upon him when tremors wracked the cave with every heavy step the monster took. Once the dust had settled, Ace looked up with his pupils contracted, combing a hand through his strawberry blonde hair that was matted with dust and grime.

Just as he feared _and_ hoped, his voice had led the monster straight to him. It loomed over him menacingly, lipless mouth stretching open to reveal a pitch-black cavern. Sending a rushed prayer to the deities above, Ace scrambled to the side just as a colossal fist crashed into the spot he was occupying previously, creating a column of fine dust. Bits of gravel stuck to its translucent skin when it raised its hand to reveal a huge crater.

He could only back away on his rear like a cornered animal as the monster lurched towards him again, its milky-white eyes training on Ace as its current target.

Before it could crush him, Ace whipped out his magic pen and cast a spell that conjured a strong gust of wind at the same time cyan flames engulfed it whole. The tempestuous gale aided the intensity of the luminous flames, turning them into a smothering inferno. The dual forces assailing it elicited an earth-shattering caterwaul from the monster. To top it off, three cauldrons landed on top of it in rapid succession, crushing it under their combined weight.

"Oi Deuce, are cauldrons all you have in your repertoire?" Ace couldn't help but ask.

"Yeah, why not a piano?" Cuifen's voice sounded out with a teasing lilt.

Just as Grim was crowing in triumph, the cauldrons were somehow thrown off and the monster slowly but surely rose to its feet, recovering from their attack.

"It's still-!" Yuu began, eyes widening.

"More cauldrons! We need more cauldrons!" Grim scampered off as its flames began to flicker. "DEUCE! DO YOUR THING!"

Deuce's mouth fell open in a rictus of horror. "Crap, I don't think it will work anymore!"

Just as Deuce had predicted, the monster batted aside the falling cauldrons as though it was mere child's play, somehow growing stronger after bearing the onslaught of offensive magic.

The monster honed in on Ace—the nearest person to it—and charged towards him, ready to deliver a deadly blow.

Fear smothered him—closing up his throat, twining around his sternum and imprisoning his heart in its cruel clutches.

Ace's screams rented the air, striking fear into their hearts as they watched on helplessly.

Before it could do the unspeakable, dark tendrils that bore a resemblance to creeping vines snaked around the entirety of its body, rendering it motionless. Trapped in its position, the monster roared and writhed around in its restraints, struggling to break free. Baffled by the phenomenon, Ace could only gape at the sight before him, his brain still unable to register the turn of events.

"What the fuck are you doing!? GO!" Cuifen ordered, her peremptory tone jolting him into action.

Acting on the adrenaline rushing through his veins, Ace clambered to his feet and hightailed it out of there.

"WE GOT THE CRYSTAL! LET'S GO!" Ace heard Deuce call out to them in the distance.

**_"NO...CRYSTAL...MINE. WON'T GIVE!"_ **

Angered by the thought of them getting away with its prized possession, the monster gained one last burst of energy to slam itself against the nearest pillar, causing it to give way immediately.

Cuifen released a string of profanities when she felt her magic waning the longer she held on to the monster with the shadows she had called forth to help. Unbridled fury smouldered in her onyx eyes like dying embers on coals as she gave one last tug at the bindings around the monster, preventing it from chasing after her friends.

However, it seemed to have given up on that mission. Instead, it had a new goal and that was to trap them in here with it for eternity, languishing in their misery until they took their final breath. Another violent thud against the main pillar weakened the last of the mine's supports, sending the teenagers into hysterics.

"Fuck, we gotta get out of here!" Yuu cried, their voice escaping from their throat in a hoarse scream. "Cuifen! Come on!"

Beads of sweat gathered at her browline as she willed the shadows to envelop the monster in a cocoon of darkness. Now that its movements were thoroughly restricted, Cuifen broke into a sprint, racing against time and her own magic as the farther she got, the weaker the shadows were without a vessel to call upon them.

Her heart thudded wildly against her ribcage like a wild beast struggling to free itself from its bone-barred prison. The agony spreading throughout her body didn't bother her as much as she thought it would since it proved that she was still alive. And she needed to keep running if she wanted to stay alive.

Internally, she cursed herself for not staying behind like Jaemin. This adventure didn't seem all that fun anymore after encountering so many close brushes with death in the span of an hour.

"CUIFEN! HURRY UP!"

Spurred by her friends' panic-stricken screams, she pushed herself out of the collapsing cave but not in time to evade a falling jagged rock that clipped her on the side of her head.

Instantly, an excruciating pain bloomed in her skull as black lined her vision.

The last thing she felt was hands towing her up by the arms and pulling her away.

* * *

It was kind of underwhelming that she came to literally fifteen minutes later while Yuu was trying to staunch the bleeding from her temple with their handkerchief.

"Who even keeps a handkerchief nowadays?" she rasped, sitting up slowly as her friends spewed incoherent protests and crowded around her to get her to lie down again.

The sharp flare of pain in her head had dulled into an ache, unbearable but still manageable. She wasn't looking forward to feeling the rest of her body hurting as well once the last vestiges of adrenaline leave her system.

She brought her hand up to gingerly touch the congealed substance on her temple and cheeks. The right side of her face was sticky with dried blood and even her blazer was speckled with it. Christ, she had forgotten that head wounds bled a shit-ton of blood no matter how severe it was.

"I thought you were dead!" Grim wailed, pouncing on her and squeezing her neck in a violent imitation of a hug.

Cuifen let out a soft "oof" upon impact, not expecting the prickly creature to show its affection in this manner.

"Good to know you have so much faith in me that you believe I'll get taken down by a fucking pebble," Cuifen wheezed.

"Death by a pebble instead of a ghost sounds pretty lame, don't you think?" Ace croaked, blinking their eyes furiously.

Upon looking closely, Cuifen noticed the glossy sheen in them that confirmed her suspicions.

"Are you crying, dude? Did you actually think I was killed?" Cuifen tossed her head back and let out a full-belied laugh. "Oh God, this is absolutely hilarious. I can't-" Giggles interspersed with her sentence as she covered her mouth with one hand. "You do care after all!"

Flustered after being called out, Ace ducked his head. "I'm not crying, you idiot! I just got dust in my eyes in that fucking cave!"

"He nearly cried," Deuce deadpanned, side-eying him. "Was planning to build you an epitaph here and everything."

"Wow," Cuifen said flatly, stroking the tuft sticking up on Grim's head reassuringly as it continued to cling to her.

"Seriously though," Yuu cut in, clasping Cuifen's hands in theirs as they fixed her with a half-hearted glare. "Don't do something as risky as that again. You scared the shit out of all of us."

Deuce hummed in affirmation, Grim redoubled its hold on her and Ace muttered darkly under his breath but made no move to deny Yuu's point.

"I had to do it to save Ace. It was kinda my fault that he was nearly killed in the first place since I came up with that plan," Cuifen said with a sigh, giving the boy an apologetic smile.

Ace let out a huff. "Exactly, you owe me for pulling that kind of stunt."

"Aren't we even since I saved you?"

"You owe me for nearly giving me a heart attack right after you saved me!"

"Okay, okay, cool it y'all," Yuu intervened before things could get heated again. "We don't want to agitate her wound."

Cuifen fake-swooned into Yuu's arms, pressing the back of her hand against her forehead. "Ohh, I'm getting dizzy again."

"You little-" Ace cut himself off with a growl.

Deuce simply watched the scene unfold before him with a faint trace of amusement upon his lips.

"What kind of power was that though?" He piped up, remembering the sentient shadows back in the cave. "You can manipulate darkness?"

The light-hearted atmosphere took a nose-dive as everyone stared at Cuifen for her answer.

"Er," Cuifen started, palms turning clammy as she recalled the moment her mind fell into a trance when she felt something beyond the mortal realm calling out to her. The world had fallen away then and as though she had been bewitched by a siren's call, she was lured towards that plea. Soon, she was controlling an unseen force like it was second nature to her.

"Yes," she chose to say after a brief moment.

She could feel the weight of Yuu's questioning gaze on her but ignored it as Ace, Grim and Deuce gave her a starstruck look.

"That's so cool," Grim breathed, looking at her with newfound admiration.

Cuifen smiled awkwardly. "Yeah, it really is."

"As interesting as this conversation is, I think we need to get back to school before the headmaster expels you," Yuu reminded them mildly.

This spurred the two Heartslabyul students into action as they leapt to their feet while supporting Cuifen on both sides. The girl baulked momentarily as she was taller than both of them but after seeing that they could bear her weight, she eased up.

Deuce grinned. "Well then, let's get this crystal back to the headmaster."


	5. Crystals and Chrysanthemum

"Ugh, finally, I can't wait to go home," Ace groaned, looping his arm around Cuifen's waist.

Grim patted its rotund belly, mewling despondently. "I'm starving from using so much magic..." Its words trailed off as it spotted a jet-black crystal in the grass near the mouth of the cave. "Hmm? What's this?" It scuttled over to the crystal and picked it up before holding it up in the air, watching it absorb the sun's rays. "Oh, it's another gemstone."

Bug-eyed, Cuifen gawked at the crystal that was now in Grim's paws. Oh shit, she had completely forgotten about it after being caught up in their life-or-death situation. At least the existence of the crystal confirmed that the monster indeed had perished back there. Good, because she wouldn't be able to handle a second round with that relentless monster. And she didn't think she could summon those shadows again. What if the first time had been a fluke or a random stroke of luck? Yeah, she wasn't risking it.

However, it didn't make sense for the crystal to appear out in the open since the mine was already sealed in along with the overblot spirit of the dwarf. Then again, no one was questioning the sudden appearance of the crystal so it shouldn't be that big of a deal.

She opted to chalk it up to the game mechanism smoothing over the plot hole for her since her intervention messed up the original storyline. Just like it did when Jaemin's coffin instead of Yuu's was blasted open by Grim.

"This thing smells really good," Grim exclaimed, its pink nose twitching as it sniffed the crystal. "This has to be candy the monster was hiding. Ooh, I can't hold back! Time to dig in!"

Deuce made an aborted gesture, wanting to stop Grim but reconsidering at the last second since he was still carrying half of Cuifen's weight. "Hey! You-"

Too late, the crystal dropped into Grim's gaping mouth and disappeared down its throat.

"-shouldn't eat it..." Deuce trailed off, disbelieving.

"Grim!" Yuu clutched their head, their blood pressure rising for the nth time that day. "Spit it out ASAP. Who knows what kind of bacteria is growing on that thing?"

Covering its mouth with its paws, it made a gagging sound. This elicited a collective sigh from the teenagers who levelled it with matching unimpressed looks.

"Are you alright!?" Yuu asked, looking harried like a mother of four.

"This is why you don't eat things off the ground," Ace said, rolling his eyes.

"Three-second rule," Cuifen mumbled.

"You know that's not scientifically proven, right?" Deuce said blankly.

With glee lighting up its protuberant eyes, Grim chimed, "This is delicious!"

"EHHH!?" Ace, Deuce and Yuu exclaimed in unison, clearly shocked by the firm declaration.

"It's full-bodied, but also rich, with an aromatic sweetness that blooms on my taste buds...it's like there is a whole field of flowers in my mouth!" Grim said with a dreamy sigh, his detailed spiel of the flavours being reminiscent of an expert food connoisseur giving a review.

With arms akimbo, Yuu fixed it with an incredulous look. "You're unbelievable, Grim. Don't you dare come whining to me if you get a stomachache."

"Monsters really do have a different taste," Ace said dryly, repulsed yet intrigued.

Deuce grimaced. "I guess so. But more than that, most people wouldn't even put a random object in their mouth without a second thought.

Grim barked out an imperious little laugh. "Gahahaha! Tasty, tasty! Don't worry, my stomach isn't weak like yours."

While the mother-hens of the group (aka Yuu and Deuce) continued to chastise Grim for its lack of concern over proper hygiene, Cuifen silently mulled things over in her head. Sifting through her memories of the gameplay, she tried to recall whether canon had stated anything about the effects eating the overblot crystals had on Grim.

When she couldn't pinpoint any information on that particular topic, she concluded that it was simply yet to be mentioned. It must be part of a plot twist or a foreshadowing of a great revelation in the future.

"Okay, we really need to get going now. I'm kinda bleeding all over the place," Cuifen spoke up, earning the others' immediate attention.

Sure enough, a fresh bout of blood was oozing out of the gash at her temple. Like a steady stream, it traced the arc of her cheek and dripped down onto her already dirtied shirt, seeping into the fabric like an irremovable scarlet dye. Upon seeing her worsening condition, they freaked out again and made a mad dash towards the clearing they had first arrived in.

Or at least, as well as they could with the heaviest of them being a dead-weight for two prepubescent boys.

The pain was kicking in, oh God. Her sore muscles felt like lead and although that cramping sensation should be familiar to an athlete like her, this kind of acute pain transcended a whole new level of intensity. It was a new experience for her—depending on others to hold her up (literally) when she had been keeping herself afloat ever since her early teenage years.

(She wasn't quite sure what to make of this feeling of vulnerability and helplessness.)

Stumbling alongside the two boys on shaky legs, Cuifen once again cursed herself for taxing herself out again. 

She already had enough issues to sort out such as figuring out how to control her newly gained powers, catching up with several years worth of magical education and keeping track of the storyline. The consequent mental and physical fatigue from the day's events piling on top of her problems only added to her stress, goddamnit. 

They arrived back in the Mirror Chamber in a matter of seconds, encountering a restless Crowley who was pacing up and down the room. Upon seeing their bruised and battered state, the man let out a gasp and brought his hands to his mouth, his luminescent eyes lingering on Cuifen.

"What on earth happened to you?" Crowley cried, running up to them.

"What do you think? We went to the Dwarfs' Mine and nearly got offed by some freakish monster," Ace growled, involuntarily tightening his grip on Cuifen's arm slung around his shoulders.

They had almost _lost_ her.

Crowley's face scrunched up into a look of utter bewilderment. "You—you actually went there?"

 _'Wow, the sheer audacity of this man,'_ Cuifen thought.

The rest must have shared the same sentiments as Ace and Deuce's expressions darkened whilst Grim and Yuu's jaws fell open. An oppressive silence descended upon them as the realisation sank in. Sensing the heavy tension in the room, Crowley rushed to explain himself.

"I really didn't think..." Crowley began tremulously.

'You would take up the challenge' went unsaid but they got the message loud and clear.

Crowley coughed into his fist. "You had not only gone there but you had also succeeded in your endeavours and returned with a crystal in hand. I had quietly completed the paperwork for your expulsion but it looks like I have to get rid of them."

Grim bristled. "Nnga! The nerve of this guy! While we were off fighting some crazy beast!"

"Then why would you propose that idea to us if you didn't expect that we will follow through with it?" Deuce said tersely, hiking up Cuifen so that she would not slip off.

"You endangered our lives without even knowing-" Yuu began, their petite frame shivering with fury.

"Beast? What beast?" Crowley said in despair. After a pause, he switched to another topic and addressed Cuifen. "Inform of me that matter later on. First, we need to take you to the infirmary right away to get that wound checked. I'll personally treat you myself...if I was more knowledgeable about healing-related spells." Gulping nervously, Crowley turned to the others. "Can one of you escort her there?"

"I'll do it," Ace said without any hesitation and gestured to Deuce to let go of her with his free hand.

Cuifen shot Ace an incredulous yet appreciative look. _'So this is when his character development kick-starts.'_

"Do you need the directions to the infirmary?"

"No, I know where it is," Ace said without giving the headmaster a second glance, already hauling Cuifen along as they egressed the hall of mirrors.

After a minute of wandering around aimlessly, Cuifen glanced down at him and deadpanned, "You don't know where it is, do you?"

Ace bit the inside of his cheek, expressing souring. "No. I just said that to get out of there."

"Is something wrong?" Cuifen asked. She thought he would be more ecstatic about having his expulsion rescinded. Contrary to expectations, he looked like he was going through some emotional turmoil and that baffled her.

"Of course, something's wrong! He treated our compromise as a joke and we nearly died because of that!" Ace spat, the almost tangible vitriol in his tone surprising her.

"Ah," Cuifen said shortly. She wasn't quite sure what to say to that.

Crowley was an interesting character, to put it mildly. The flighty man seemed willing to help the MC in the game though no one knew how sincere that kindness was. It had been proven time and time again that he was not entirely dependable, prone to procrastinating his work, leaving students to take care of his responsibilities or making excuses for his incompetence as a headmaster. In canon, he was always putting off research and flusteredly giving a flimsy reason for the delay when Yuu asked about his progress in finding a way to send them back home.

Compared to the stand-offish adults back in her world, Crowley was far more bearable. At the end of the day, Cuifen liked him for his idiosyncrasies no matter how much she wanted to smack him over the head whenever he failed at adulting.

Thankfully, the brunette was spared from replying to Ace by the loud call of her name.

Coming to a stop at a T-Junction, Ace and Cuifen looked both ways before determining the direction of that voice. What greeted them was the sight of an uncharacteristically distressed-looking Kalim charging straight towards them with an equally troubled Jamil in tow from the hallway on the left. Their faces took on an alarmingly pale pallor when they were standing directly in front of them, getting a clear unobstructed view of Cuifen's bleeding temple and their overall dishevelled state.

It made sense that they evoked this kind of reactions from Jamil and Kalim since they truly looked like they went through hell and back.

"I thought I was imagining it but there really is blood all over you!" Kalim exclaimed in horror, worry clouding his features.

"Don't worry, this is my blood. I didn't murder anyone," was Cuifen's immediate response much to Ace's chagrin.

Kalim's eyes blinked rapidly, face blanking in confusion.

"OI! Stop saying questionable things!" The strawberry blond snapped at her without any real heat behind his words.

"Why is that the first thing that crossed your mind?" Jamil spoke up, unintentionally raising his voice at her as his forehead furrowed. "That doesn't sound any less concerning!" He then eyed the pair dubiously. "Have you even applied pressure to the wound?"

"Yuu did," Ace said defensively. "Now stop holding us up. We are going to the infirmary. It's been a fucking long day."

"We don't even know how to get there, dude," Cuifen said under her breath though the boys still heard her, somehow.

Kalim composed himself, looking resolute. "We'll accompany you there."

"Er, it's fine. You must be busy," Cuifen said, shuffling her weight from one foot to the other.

"We're your dorm leaders so you're our responsibility. The least we can do is make sure you're okay," Kalim said softly yet firmly, his stubborn trait surfacing. "We just finished dinner anyway. Our schedule is pretty much cleared for the day."

In the face of such earnestness, how could they refuse?

Ace grumbled in assent while Cuifen thanked them for taking time out of their day to help them.

"Give her to me. You look just as tired as her," Jamil said with his arms outstretched though he stopped himself before he could touch her. His hands hovered in mid-air as he looked up at Cuifen with an unspoken question writ large over his ashen countenance.

Okay, Jamil fretting over her was flattering and all but there was no way in hell she was letting him near her bloody, dusty, sweaty ass. No one in their right mind would want their crush to see them in such a sorry state and Cuifen was no exception. Unfortunately for her, she had the shittiest luck and whoever up there was an asshole. But just to her.

She would have preferred literally anyone else to have come across them. Even Vil who was so fussy about appearances and would undoubtedly rip into Ace and Cuifen for walking around looking like this. But no, it had to be Jamil.

"I can walk by myself," Cuifen blurted out and was promptly awarded sceptical looks from the three boys. "No seriously, you don't need to carry me any more. I'm bleeding, not dying. I've gotten injuries like this before and as you can see, I'm still alive."

This was true. She had walked out of most of her fights largely unscathed but there were times when she would be beaten to an inch away from death and still had to carry herself out of the sparring arena on her own two feet. Krav Maga was all about brutality and efficiency after all. Hence, being incapacitated after a few rounds was not uncommon during training with her instructors and fellow practitioners.

Letting Ace and Deuce carry her this whole time was a mistake; a moment of weakness she had granted herself and it was a sign that she was losing her discipline. More practice always made up for a disappointing performance so she resolved to pick up her slack and start her training regime again in a day or two.

If her instructors could see her now, they would have an apoplectic fit and make her run fifteen laps around the neighbourhood.

(But they weren't here any more, her traitorous mind reminded her. Was there any harm done if she went easy on herself?)

To prove her point, she shrugged off Ace's arm and took a few wobbly steps. Slightly light-headed but still steady enough to walk with her back straight and her head held high, she started in the direction the Scarabia duo had come from, hoping this was the right way to the infirmary or else she would just look stupid.

"You're just being obstinate now." Jamil let out a long-suffering sigh as he jogged up to Cuifen. Matching her strides, he gave her a sidelong glance with his slanted eyes narrowing into thin slits. "You look like you are about to keel over, Cuifen. Why don't you let me-?"

"No," Cuifen said quickly, chest seizing with irrational fear. Too quickly because her voice must have come off as exceedingly brusque to Jamil since his face closed off into a guarded expression and his steps faltered. The slip was scarcely noticeable as he had gathered himself in a blink of an eye, seemingly unphased by her curt rejection.

And just like that, he was the aloof Jamil Viper again—no longer showing any emotions on his placid face.

"If you say so," he said with a diplomatic smile. The tension around his kohl-rimmed eyes wasn't there before. "I apologise for stepping out of line and insisting on doing something you're clearly uncomfortable with."

Shit, he was speaking formally to her now. In that stiff subservient manner expected of a servant.

The words she was now sorely regretting left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. "You didn't do anything wrong. I'm just not-" She didn't even know how to finish her sentence.

Jamil didn't look keen on listening to her half-assed justification so she just shut her mouth and wallowed in self-pity. How was she messing this up already? The one time Jamil readily offered his help to someone who wasn't his master, he was shot down by her dumb self-conscious ass.

"Tell us if you're feeling dizzy or sick, okay?" Kalim's bell-like voice piped up as he sidled up to her from her left, interrupting her musings. "We'll slow down for you."

"You better tell us instead of keeping quiet about it, okay?" Ace's gruff voice cut in. "If you faint, we ain't carrying you and your buff ass all the way to the infirmary. We all have stick arms here."

That just added salt to her wound and in this case, it wasn't her head wound. It was her bruised pride.

"Sure," she said with a wan smile, wishing something would go right today.

* * *

Jaemin was having a nice relaxing evening.

After the chandelier fiasco, he had gone straight back to Ramshackle Dorm to begin his spa-day. His hair was now a vibrant salmon-pink instead of its initial washed-out shade, his nails were filed and painted an eye-pleasing violet hue and his face was shaven and slathered with some Nivea cream moisturizer.

Vil Schönheit would be so proud of him for his meticulous ten-step beauty routine if he knew.

No wonder Pomefiore was his other option.

Too bad he couldn't have chosen it thanks to its potion-making reputation. There was no way the dorm would remain intact after he conducted a science experiment in the laboratory in an attempt to brew poison.

Now that he was on the subject of dormitories, he should return to Octavinelle tonight and show his face there lest his roommates think he was a ghost member. It was settled then. He would sleep there for the night after his spa day. He didn't think Yuu would be so gracious to let them camp out in their tiny room again.

It had taken Jaemin a few hours to finish his self-care session but man, did he feel better now. The best part of it all was that he could indulge in the expensive, high-quality products without being obligated to feel guilty over his spendings since he didn't even have to buy any of them in the first place. God, he loved this bag. Where had it been all his life?

It would have made his life easier, that was for sure.

Shaking his head as if to physically clear his head of those thoughts, Jaemin settled into his bubble bath with a contented sigh. As a wise man once said (or was it he himself who said that?), a warm bubble bath should be the grand finale to end a spa day.

"Think positive things or else it will ruin the good vibes," Jaemin mumbled to himself, dumping a generous amount of decadent vanilla caramel-scented bath oil into the water. "Negative vibes are bad for the skin."

He shouldn't dwell on those times—it just brought up more damning memories that would ultimately ruin his mood the more he overanalysed them.

Quickly, he looked around to find something to distract himself with.

Oh right, the water was getting cold.

He reached over to turn on the tap, angling it to the left so that warmer water would flow out.

At first, he had tried to fill up the tub using his magic but nothing happened. Assuming that the water spell only worked in emergencies, he had resigned himself to making another attempt the next day. He wasn't expecting to be able to use magic proficiently since he obviously never had any experience.

 _'Baby steps, take baby steps.'_ He reminded himself as he switched off the squeaky tap.

Now that he thought about it, the Ramshackle Dorm had running water and electricity despite its, well, ramshackle conditions. Maybe Crowley had magicked the place so that they had access to basic amenities. Yet, the headmaster couldn't be bothered to at least magick the dust away. Ah well, he wasn't going to question it any more. He really didn't understand that man.

After finishing his bath, Jaemin brewed some cleansing herbal tea for himself and put on a face mask. There were about twenty sheets in that pack and one whole pot of chrysanthemum tea percolating through the filter so he figured he would share some with Yuu and Cuifen once they returned from their expedition to the abandoned mines.

Speaking of expeditions, shouldn't they be back by now? The sun had already set a while ago and Jaemin had already had a quiet dinner consisting of bibimbap.

As if on cue, he could hear the creak of the door to the foyer opening and he rose from his seat on the newly dusted armchair in the lounge area. Adjusting his white bathrobe, he slipped on his fluffy house slippers and padded across the room and towards the entrance, wanting to get there first and greet them instead of the ghosts.

(Where were the Ghostbusters when you needed them? Then again, he hadn't seen the ghosts around lately. Strange.)

It felt kind of domestic with the three of them living together in one dormitory and he hated to admit it but he was already getting attached to the idea of this easy-going lifestyle. He had always wanted to live with a few roommates in a cosy apartment but well, that never happened. It seemed that he was finally receiving the opportunities he had missed out on in his new life.

It was as though the universe was deliberately convincing him to stay here in Twisted Wonderland.

(Was it bad that he didn't really see a problem with that?)

Expecting it to be Yuu, Grim and Cuifen at the door, he didn't have any qualms about letting himself be seen with his fringe pinned up by bobby pins, his face covered with a facial mask and his body clad only in a white robe and bunny slippers. However, instead of Cuifen entering the house, it turned out to be Deuce who paled and let out a girlish shriek at the sight of him.

"Do we have to deal with another monster!?" Deuce plastered himself against the door, his hand blindly groping for the knob. "Christ, it's even uglier than the last one!"

Okay, that was uncalled for.

Cocking his hips to the side with his arms folded over his chest, Jaemin sent the boy a deadpan look. "Yah, who are you calling ugly, peasant?"

"Deuce, that's just my friend, Jaemin," Yuu said with a world-weary sigh while Grim, who was sitting in the crook of their arm, guffawed.

At Deuce or at Jaemin, they weren't too sure. 

The navy-haired boy did a double-take, the frazzled look on his face morphing into a quizzical one and then a sheepish one. "Oh."

Jaemin snorted, unclipping his bangs. "Nice to meet you too, dude. Now, where's Cuifen? That bitch has skin dryer than my grandma's ass crack. She needs a facial mask."

Yuu's face crumpled at the mention of Cuifen.

"She's at the infirmary," Grim said quietly, its laughter fading away.

Grim was kind of subdued for some reason. Oh, wow, the weather forecast better be ready for flying pigs the next day.

"What is she doing there?" Jaemin said blankly.

When he received unamused looks from the three of them, his brain managed to parse out the words and his delayed reaction finally kicked in.

"Oh shit," Jaemin said, realisation sinking in. "She's hurt!?"

In canon, the characters had made it out of the cave a little worse for wear but did not need any medical treatment whatsoever. What kind of serious injury did Cuifen get that warranted her a trip to the infirmary? Just what did she do??

Facepalming, Yuu replied, "Yes. She was struck by a falling rock and her head's bleeding. Like, a lot."

"Head wounds usually bleed a lot. Even if it is just a small cut," Jaemin said weakly. "She should be fine. Like, have you seen those muscles? That woman is on steroids. There's no way she will go down because of a pebble."

"That's exactly what she had told us," Deuce said with an airy laugh, the purple rings under his eyes and the stress lines etched into his forehead made prominent by the fluorescent lighting in the foyer. Damn, this guy had it pretty rough, didn't he?

"Okay, you guys need some tea, snacks and face cream. STAT," Jaemin declared with a snap of his fingers. "Just help yourselves to them. They're all in the kitchen. You stay here while I go check up on her."

Deuce gave him a grateful smile. "That will be much appreciated."

"Thanks, Jaems," Yuu said, looking like a weight had been taken off their shoulders by that mere suggestion.

Jaems, huh? He hadn't heard that in a long time.

Stamping down the rise of those cumbersome feelings in him, Jaemin peeled off his facial mask and traded his bunny slippers for a pair of flip-flops. "I'll be back soon. I'll update you if there's anything new, okay?"

"Mhm, we have a lot to tell you too," Grim said, its ears perking up as it leapt out of Yuu's arms.

Ah, he could see the ribbon tied around its neck now. The amethyst lodged in the centre of the bowknot matched the colour of Jaemin's freshly painted nails. With Grim out of the way, he could also see the ghost camera hanging around Yuu's neck by its strap.

Great, everything was on track currently. Both Yuu and Grim made up one whole student now. Jaemin was really looking forward to the prospect of all four of them attending the same classes with A-Deuce. It would be a chaotic, beautiful mess.

"Wait, are you going out like that?" Deuce said, a slightly judgemental note seeping into his tone just as Jaemin was about to step out of the house.

Jaemin arched a plucked brow at him. "Yeah, so what? I'm not naked, am I? You want me to run back upstairs and change into something more befitting of a meeting with the queen of England?"

Deuce flushed and shook his head. "No, it's fine. You probably want to see your friend as soon as possible. You must be really worried."

Him? Worried for Cuifen? His friend? Whatever, there was no use denying it any more. It was hard not to befriend someone who got transported from the same dimension as you to a magical virtual reality full of hot guys, danger and well, magic. Call it solidarity of sorts. He didn't really care about the technicalities but he did care whether Cuifen was dead or not because there was no way his scrawny ass would survive in this world without her.

"Mhm," Jaemin said noncommittally before slamming open the door, nearly chipping his painstakingly painted nails in the process. In a swirl of robes and lavender perfume, he was out of the house and tearing down the steep lane to the mirror gateway.

(On second thought, flip-flops might not be the best footwear for running.)

Jaemin was having a nice relaxing evening.

Until it was ruined because _someone_ couldn't escape from a level-one expedition unscathed.

Jaemin was going to say a few choice words to that woman and even if she didn't take him seriously in his bathrobe and flip-flops, at least he would get his point across.

Stress! Damaged! His! Skin!

He could tell that by the end of the first arc, he was also going to get white hair.

And who would he have to blame? Ming Cuifen.

From now on, he was going to be the unofficial babysitter of their dimension-travelling crew and supervise them on every adventure because the moment he was out of the picture, someone had to go and get themselves hurt.

He really wasn't paid enough to deal with this bullshit.


	6. Tarts and Tantrums

The nurse at the infirmary happened to be inspired by a young Mother Gothel from Tangled with the same fixation on her looks, constantly touching her ringlets of hair and checking her nails which were longer than a typical nurse's nails should be. Upon seeing Cuifen in all her bloodied glory, she ushered the girl to a bed with a muttered: "what a troublemaker" and a disapproving click of her tongue. She must have assumed that Cuifen had gotten into a brawl thanks to Ace's guilty expression when the hair sticking to her temple was peeled away to unveil a grotesque gash the colour of raw meat with abraded skin flaying off around the opening.

The treatment was a quick and simple one so there was no need for the nurse to shoo the boys away. They waited by her side while the nurse wrapped up her examination. With a wave of her wand, the flaky blood clumping Cuifen's hair together and the other bodily fluids staining her face and clothes were magicked away. Next, a disinfectant was applied to her wound before it closed up on its own as if an invisible thread and needle were stitching up the torn skin.

"There's nothing I can do about the scarring," the comely nurse informed Cuifen, arranging her bangs neatly for her. "Sorry about that, darling. Magic can only do so much. If it's any consolation, the scar won't ruin your handsome face at all."

Cuifen brushed off her apology with a smile. "Getting scars isn't a big deal for me so it's fine. You did all that you could so thank you."

The nurse patted her cheek and Cuifen caught a whiff of antiseptic and an underlying fragrance of bergamot oil from her soft hand. "No problem, darling. Take better care of yourself, get plenty of rest and drink lots of water to make up for the blood loss, you hear me? Good, you may leave now. If you feel ill at any time, just come to me."

She then whirled around to face the rest. "Now, you boys better keep a look-out for this one. Don't let her get into any more fights."

Ace parted his lips to correct the nurse but Jamil spoke up evenly before he could. "We understand, Madam Gabrielle. Thank you for your help; we'll be going now."

Kalim was already by Cuifen's side, proffering his hand to her with a winsome smile. "Wanna head back to Scarabia now?"

Cuifen baulked. Her bag was still at Ramshackle Dorm since she had planned to sleep there again tonight.

Before she could give the albino her reply, she was harshly interjected by a familiar voice.

"MING. CUI. FEN."

Cuifen barely withheld a flinch as the doors to the infirmary swung open to reveal a manic-looking Jaemin. Her survival instincts told her she shouldn't question why he was in nothing but a fluffy white bathrobe and flip-flops that made a slapping sound against the tiled floor as he strode towards her with shoulders squared and eyes squinted.

Ace was immediately on guard. "What the hell-?"

Jaemin completely ignored the other occupants of the room. He loomed over Cuifen who was sitting on a bed and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "What kind of reckless, stupid shit did you do?"

Kalim frowned at him, feeling wholly out of depth by the newcomer's sudden arrival. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

He went unheard by the both of them who were too busy staring each down, literally and figuratively.

"Bro, chill." Cuifen held up her hands. "It was a minor accident."

Jaemin switched to English. "Minor accident my ass! If you consider the height the rock fell from, it could have killed you! I don't know if it's because you got lucky or because us being in a world of magic made us more resistant to injuries but you got away with just a scratch. None of the characters also got hurt in canon so how come you got the bad end of the stick?"

"I don't think everything can go exactly the way canon did since us being here already messed up the original storyline."

"You have a point. Now let me see your wound."

Without waiting for a response, he took her head in his hands and brushed aside the locks of hair to reveal skin that was unblemished aside from the diagonal strip of raised flesh forming into a scar across her temple. Once he was satisfied with his inspection, he released her and flicked her forehead with his fingers.

"Oi, what was that for?" Cuifen grumbled, rubbing the smarting spot.

"That was for ruining for my relaxing spa day." Jaemin huffed. "Don't you know stress is bad for the baby?"

"Who is the-" Cuifen cut herself off to give him a flat look. "I swear to God if you say _you're_ the baby, I'll chokeslam you through the floor."

Jaemin wisely chose not to answer.

Oblivious to the other students watching their exchange in confusion, they continued their conversation as if they were the only ones in the room.

"By the way, are you...naked under that bathrobe?" Cuifen asked, face screwing up into a perturbed expression.

"...Maybe..."

"Dude, your dingaling is just dangling?"

Jaemin sucked in a breath. "Don't you dare ever call my dick 'dingaling' again."

"My bad," Cuifen said impassively.

The facade lasted for a fleeting moment before she broke down into a fit of giggles with Jaemin joining her a second later. Their mingled laughter filled the room, evoking perplexed reactions from the rest of the boys who had absolutely no idea which foreign language they were speaking in.

"What the fuck, man?" Cuifen began, eyes watering from the force of her laugh. "Why would you come out looking like this?"

"I don't know!" Jaemin hiccupped, swatting her shoulder when she gave him a once-over and waggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Stop that! I just panicked, alright!?"

"Aww, you do care about me," Cuifen sang, clasping her hands to her heart and fluttering her lashes at him.

Jaemin poked the red spot on her forehead with a frown, his lips twitching as he struggled to not smile and ruin the intended effect. "Don't push your luck, missy. I'm still mad that you got yourself hurt. I looked away for a few hours and this happened."

"It won't happen again," Cuifen said truthfully.

"It better not," Jaemin said with faux sternness, eliciting another chuckle from her.

"Erm, so are you ready to go now?" Ace piped up, bursting their private bubble.

Cuifen blinked, flushing in embarrassment when she realised the others were still in the room. "Shit, yeah, sorry about that. Let's go." She rose to her feet with Jaemin supporting her by the elbow though she didn't need to be held up anymore.

"To Scarabia?" Kalim asked with naked hope swimming in his expressive eyes.

"Er no, to Ramshackle Dorm," Cuifen said with a slight wince, feeling like she had committed a crime as she compared Kalim to a kicked puppy at that moment. She rushed to amend her statement. "I left my luggage there and I'm too tired to move tonight so I'll just sleep there for now."

Besides, Jamil could have his privacy to himself for a little longer before she officially moved in.

The albino let out a despondent "I see" while Jamil dipped his head in acknowledgment, the rings and feather ornaments he was sporting in his hair tinkling along with the movement. Cuifen could no longer read him through the little tics and nuances in his body language, tone, or facial expressions.

People were the most honest late at night or early in the morning so what she had seen during the past two encounters with Jamil was the closest thing to his true character. Now that the time of the day was somewhere in between, Jamil was in full control of himself. He made sure nothing could slip through the cracks of his porcelain mask; his impenetrable eyes and inscrutable countenance giving nothing away as he seamlessly fell into his role as Kalim's dutiful servant. It felt as though her efforts to grow closer to him were all for nought upon seeing him closed off and distant again.

The pang of guilt returned and Cuifen stifled a sigh, frustrated with herself for fucking things up.

Unaware of the sudden awkwardness between Cuifen and Jamil, Jaemin decided to help his friend spend as much time as possible with her favourite character. And so, he introduced himself to the three boys before inviting them to come over to Ramshackle Dorm for some tea and snacks.

"We can get to know each other better," Jaemin had said with a charming smile that usually got him what he wanted, failing to notice the growing panic in Cuifen's eyes.

"This isn't supposed to happen in canon," Cuifen said through gritted teeth in English.

"Not everything can go exactly the way canon did since us being here already messed up the original storyline," Jaemin said with a close-eyed smile, throwing her own words back at her.

"Nah, maybe another time. I want to shower right now," Ace said, looking a little sorry to pass up this invitation.

"Oh, that's okay. I'll save some of the food for you tomorrow," Jaemin said, knowing that the strawberry blond would crash at their dorm later tonight after his run-in with Riddle.

"That's a great idea!" Kalim enthused, pulling on the sleeve of Jamil's hoodie like a toddler wanting their mother's attention. "Can we go there, Jamil? Please~. We've already finished our homework for the day!"

Jamil's weary gaze drifted from Kalim's imploring puppy-dog eyes to Jaemin's expectant smile to Cuifen's carefully neutral expression.

He yielded at last, his shoulders sagging along with the sigh that left his lips. "Fine. But not for long."

So this was how they all ended up lounging around in the Ramshackle Dorm's living room.

Deuce, Yuu and Grim were already sitting together on the tacky striped sofa with the television which Jaemin had set up last night playing a Netflix show Yuu had chosen at random. From afar, the newcomers could see that both Deuce and Yuu's hair was dripping wet and that they were all freshened up in new clothes, having already showered. Grim was curled up on the armrest beside Deuce, letting its tail dangle off of it. Upon realising they had company, Yuu paused the show at the scene where the protagonist met the love interest for the first time. Yuu instantly got up to fuss over Cuifen and they made sure she was seated comfortably between them and Deuce before shoving a plate of macarons and cookies into her hands.

"Oh!" Kalim made an exclamation of surprise when he spotted Grim. "Y-You're the cat that set my butt on fire during the entrance ceremony!"

Jamil pulled a face. " _That's_ the pyrokinetic creature you were crying about? What's it doing here?"

"Grim's staying with us." Cuifen reached over to pat Grim who was squinting its eyes at Kalim in an effort to remember him. "Don't worry, it can behave itself. You don't have to worry about it committing arson."

"You should still apologise to him, Grim," Jaemin said, looking at it askance.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry for nearly burning off your butt," Grim grumbled, rolling its eyes.

Kalim gave it a vaguely amused look before shaking his head and waving it off. "It's fine! There was no harm done."

"If you had gotten third-degree burns, your family will have my head," Jamil sighed before politely greeting them. "It's nice to meet you—I'm Jamil Viper and this is Kalim al-Asim, we're second-year Scarabia students."

"Oh hello! It's nice to meet you too. I'm Yuu, this is Grim and Deuce. Why don't you have a seat?" Yuu gestured to the other vacant seats and then at the food on the table. "Help yourselves to the food, we have more than enough for everyone."

With an eager "thank you, don't mind if I do", Kalim made a beeline for the plethora of food (courtesy of the trio's bags) on the coffee table. Jamil let him through first before reaching for the snacks as well.

Yuu and Grim then updated Jaemin and Cuifen about their official status as a student, both of them respectively flaunting their ghost camera and ribbon collar. During the conversation, Cuifen would always glanced at the Scarabia duo, noting how they looked rather out-of-place in their dilapidated dorm with all their golden splendour but somehow, they still looked right at home. Like the social butterfly he was, Kalim was already making small talk with Deuce about their tea preferences with the albino bringing up the ridiculously sweet tea served in his homeland. The topic then shifted to academics since Deuce inquired about the difficulty level of classwork and Jamil joined the conversation to clarify his doubts.

The interaction between Deuce and the second-years were unexpected since the Scarabia duo were only properly introduced much later on. But still, unlikely characters getting along well made for a pretty heart-warming sight and Jaemin and Cuifen couldn't deny that they were happy with this change in the storyline.

Once he was done catching up with Yuu, Jaemin headed upstairs to change into a tank top and sweatpants. Afterward, he returned to the lounge area to find that the entire room was now immaculate and orderly. The cobwebs in the dark unreachable corners of the room were gone; the peeling wallpaper was replaced by a layer of ecru paint; the moth-eaten furniture looked brand new; the rusty windows appeared to be well-oiled with unstained drapings and the musty fireplace had been stoked to kindle a strong fire.

Jaemin brought his hands to his mouth. "Sweet baby Jesus."

"Jaems, guess what!" Yuu said, smoothing a finger over a dust-free portrait. "Jamil-senpai cleaned the entire place for us!"

"It was amazing!" Deuce gushed, falling out of his strait-laced character for a moment to express his wonder. "He just waved his pen and the dust and grime all disappeared."

Grim pranced around the room, marveling at its pristine conditions. "I may be a genius but he's on another level! Even the headmaster can't clean up all the dust properly. Do you think we can keep him as our maid?" Grim was awarded several long looks from the humans. "Grrr, that bird-faced bastard really is useless if a student knows more about spells than him!"

Deuce looked scandalised by Grim's name-calling; Jamil fought back an amused smile; Kalim flat out laughed along with Cuifen whereas Jaemin repressed a snort.

"Jamil is the best, isn't he?" Kalim said with a proud grin, stuffing his face with saltine crackers, which he had strangely taken a liking to, on the floor at Deuce's feet. "He can do anything!"

"All it took was a few simple household spells. Fine particles like dust and grime are easy to get rid of. Renovating and refurbishing are a bit tricky but doable," Jamil said, slightly flushed but clearly basking in the barrage of their effusive praises and compliments. "I'm good at them since cleaning up after Kalim takes a lot of work too."

Clipping his magic pen on the collar of his hoodie, the brunet sat down on the loveseat adjacent to the couch. Jaemin sauntered over to him, picking up the bowl of cheesy popcorn on his way and plopping down beside Jamil. It was an odd time to be having tea and snacks since it was already nearing nine in the evening but whatever, no one was complaining about the free food.

To be honest, Jaemin suspected that Jamil had ulterior motives while renovating the place. He highly doubted Jamil did it out of goodwill since he did not concern himself with matters that did not involve Kalim. (He had a feeling the brunet did it to impress Cuifen but that sounded far-fetched too.) Well, as long as Jamil did not use this act of kindness as blackmail or some kind of leverage in the future, Jaemin couldn't care less.

"Don't sell yourself short," Cuifen said, gazing at Jamil with a diamond-bright intensity. "The dorm was also completely trashed last night but you managed to clear up the mess very quickly. It's impressive."

Bashfully, Jamil shrank into his hood. "Cleaning up isn't difficult, it's just tiring-" Jamil ended his sentence abruptly, his face freezing in a rictus when he realised what he had let slip out. "Ah, I mean..."

It must have been drilled into his head by his parents that he must not show any signs of discontentment with his workload as a servant, especially not in front of his master, as serving the Asim family was the greatest honour for them. To make a rookie mistake like this in front of Kalim and other eyewitnesses must be the equivalent of committing sacrilegious for him.

"Yeah, of course, it is," Cuifen smoothly covered up for Jamil, aiming to sound as flippant as possible to indirectly tell him that the entire matter wasn't a big deal. "Cleaning up my apartment after work every day is a pain in the ass."

"Oooh, you lived alone?" Jaemin chimed in as he offered the popcorn bowl to Jamil. "Same here! After a long day of vocal and dance practice, I just want to chill but nope, I got a shit-ton of chores to do."

 _'Thank fuck, he caught on quick.'_ Cuifen thought, her fondness for Jaemin increasing tenfold.

Deuce gave Cuifen and Jaemin an inquisitive look. "You two..." he paused, searching for the right word to describe them. "You two are different. Same goes for Yuu."

"What are you talking about, human?" Grim said through a mouthful of red velvet cookies, spraying Yuu's lap with crumbs.

"Hm? What makes you say that?" Yuu said, their indifferent tone belying their internal panic.

They didn't care if the whole school knew they were from another world since the Dark Mirror practically confirmed it in front of everyone by announcing that it could not see their soul. However, they had yet to discuss with Jaemin and Cuifen whether they were comfortable with the idea of others knowing they weren't from this dimension either. Crowley did not mention anything about keeping the whole thing a secret but you could never be too sure.

If this information fell into the wrong hands, who knew what would happen to them?

Could they really trust a few teenagers not to go around spreading gossip about them?

"I don't know. It's just a gut feeling," Deuce said pensively, brushing away the remaining crumbs sticking to the fibre of Yuu's leggings. "It's like you're not from around here."

"No one is from around here," Kalim interjected with a tilt of his head, his pearl earrings jangling as he did so. "The whole school is on an island in the middle of the sea."

Jaemin pressed his lips together to prevent a giggle from escaping. _'God bless his heart, this is why I love Kalim.'_

Thankful for the change of subject, Cuifen spoke up, "Well, you're not wrong." She fixed Jamil, Deuce, Grim and Kalim with a sombre look that compelled them to sit up straighter. "Whatever we tell you better not leave this room, got it?"

"Clear as crystal," Deuce said promptly, knowing better than to piss her off after witnessing what she was capable of back in the mine.

Kalim mimed pulling a zipper over his mouth. "Friends don't go around spilling each other's secrets. Don't worry, Jamil and I won't tell anyone!"

Yuu sent the albino a bewildered smile, pleasantly surprised by his staunch declaration that they were all friends.

Jamil nodded in agreement as he popped a corn kernel into his mouth, curiosity apparent on his elegant visage.

"We are from a different dimension," Cuifen intoned, gesturing to Jaemin and Yuu. "One without magic."

Without even questioning the truth of that statement, Kalim made an incoherent sound of astonishment. "Really!? That's so cool! And that explains why Yuu looks so confused when he first arrived here."

"They," Yuu corrected lightly. "Please address me with they/them pronouns for today."

"Sure," Kalim agreed easily.

No one even looked fazed by it so that meant that heteronormativity must not exist here. That was cool.

 _'Bonus perks of this world,'_ the three travellers thought.

"Your names sound foreign too," Deuce commented. "Are all of you the same race?"

"No no, I'm Japanese, Jaemin is Korean and Cuifen is Chinese," Yuu corrected.

"That...that tells us nothing," Grim said bemusedly.

Jaemin huffed. "We are from the same continent but we are from different countries."

Everyone let out a collective "ah", nodding in understanding.

"What I want to know is why Jaemin and Cuifen can use magic but Yuu can't," Jamil said, nonplussed.

Jaemin shrugged. "We don't know what sets us apart from Yuu yet. Maybe it has to do with the way we left our world but really, it's all speculation at this point."

"So before you came here, you don't know how to use magic at all?" Kalim asked.

"That's right," Cuifen said.

"But back in the mine, you saved us using your unique power," Deuce said, frowning.

"Er, yeah I did. That was actually the first time I did magic," Cuifen said, sheepish.

Deuce stared at her with widened eyes. "I couldn't even tell you were beginners."

"Thanks, we tried to act as natural as possible," Jaemin said, chuckling.

"Does it bother you that you're the only one who can't use magic?" Jamil asked Yuu.

Yuu pondered for a moment before replying, "Well, not really. Yes it will be handy if I can use magic to protect myself but Jaemin and Cuifen have more than enough magic for all three of us so I don't mind not having any."

"Fugya? How can you survive without magic?" Grim said incredulously before scarfing down another cookie.

Yuu gave the creature a forbearing smile. "The advanced technology in our world makes life easier for us and that's enough for us. Sure, having magic sounds very convenient but we don't really need it back where I came from. It's amazing how both technology and magic can co-exist in your world though."

"So that's why the Dark Mirror couldn't sort you in a dormitory," Deuce concluded, tracing the rim of his empty teacup with a finger.

"Mhm, but it could sort them because they have magic," Yuu said, referring to Jaemin and Cuifen.

"How did you even cross dimensions if you don't have any magic in the first place?" Jamil inquired as he passed the bowl of popcorn back to Jaemin.

Unlike Kalim who freely gave away his trust, he chose to take their words with a grain of salt. The universe was too infinite to contain only one plane of existence so he couldn't rule out the possibility of other worlds existing out there. Albeit, he would still like physical proof before going along with their dimension-travelling claim.

"We are not sure about that. At first, I thought it might be a dream but we weren't waking up any time soon so it had to be real." Cuifen filled up Deuce's teacup with steaming hot osmanthus tea. "Crowley then tried to send Yuu back to where they came from during the ceremony after the mirror couldn't sort them but the mirror said they are from a place that doesn't exist in this world. That's pretty much confirmation that we are in another world."

Jamil quickly changed his mind after hearing that. If an all-knowing artefact like the Dark Mirror stated that, then there was no doubt those three were from different dimensions. It was a lot to take in since there were no historical accounts of someone being displaced in an alternate dimension but it wasn't entirely impossible. Magic existed after all. It opposed every scientific law of the world; it bent reality; it made the impossible feasible; it could turn black white and vice versa.

He shouldn't be surprised that magic could transport people from one world to another.

"You three are very calm for people who have been transported to another reality," Deuce pointed out.

"I lost my memories so...I guess it doesn't hurt as much since I don't remember who or what I'm missing back home," Yuu said sadly, becoming a little depressed as they leaned against Cuifen and began caressing Grim's fur for physical comfort. In return, the monster curled its three-pronged tail around their wrist.

The idyllic mood in the room plunged into one of melancholy as everyone gave Yuu a commiserating look.

Kalim reached up to pat their ankle. "It must be hard not remembering your life or your loved ones."

"It's fine, I'm getting used to it," Yuu murmured, letting Cuifen run a soothing hand down up and down their back.

"As for me, I don't really care, I guess," Jaemin said, hoping to take the attention away from Yuu who was growing uncomfortable being put in the limelight. "I was a k-pop trainee back in the other world because I got scouted by someone who works at an entertainment company. I accepted because it meant that I won't have to worry about finding a place to stay since the contract states that I'll get to stay at a dormitory. I'm pretty good at singing and I'm a fast learner so I accepted right away."

"Oh," Jamil said, his sharp eyes softening.

"I think I'll be happier here," Jaemin chirped, ignoring the prickling sensation behind his eyes. "I have magic, I have friends, I have a place to stay and yeah, I have everything I've dreamt of for now."

A loud sniff resounded in the room and everyone deliberately kept their gaze off Grim.

"That's good to hear," Deuce said, surreptitiously dabbing his eyes with the cuffs of his uniform.

"I don't have a sob story like Jaems and Yuu here," Cuifen said with a wink to imply that she was just kidding and she received a peal of laughter from them. "I don't really like my life back there. That's all. I think staying here for the rest of my life will be fun. I probably have to plan my future and somehow get some official documents to become a legitimate denizen of this world but I'll worry about that later."

"I can ask my father to get the necessary identification papers for you," Kalim offered with a grin that juxtaposed his serious tone. "He has lots of connections."

"Kalim," Jamil warned, going unheard by the albino.

"I appreciate the offer, dude," Cuifen said with a laugh, purposely not giving the albino a straight answer.

"We're friends, it's nothing," Kalim replied, inching closer and resting his chin on her knee.

Normally, someone's insistence on being friendly to her would put Cuifen on edge since she would automatically assume the worst of them. Ulterior motives; bad intentions; insincerity; using her as means to climb up the echelons of society and etcetera.

But this was Kalim. If she couldn't trust him, she couldn't trust anyone in this world.

"Thanks," she said softly, rearranging his loose turban for him.

Their conversation died away, brought about by the poignant effect the trio's revelation had on the initially buoyant ambience of the room. The sounds of mastication and the low buzz of the characters' dialogue on television were the only thing disrupting the silence. No one saw the point in picking up the chatter again, still reflecting upon what they had said or heard in the last half an hour.

For a while, they were engrossed with the popular Netflix show. Cuifen and Grim insulted the cliché scenes, competing for the most critical review they could give; Jamil was the quiet viewer who munched on the popcorn and said nothing; Kalim was the responsive viewer who made comments every now and then with his facial expressions emoting his thoughts; Jaemin was genuinely enjoying the predictable plot of this rom-com and Yuu was looking at their friends more often than they were looking at the screen, wearing a serene smile as they captured this moment with their mind's eye.

Without any warning, the tranquil atmosphere was broken by a series of violent knocks against the door. Jolting to attention, they shifted uneasily in their seats with Deuce pausing the show using the remote. Jaemin and Cuifen, on the other hand, did not even bat an eye upon hearing it since they were already expecting his arrival.

Cuifen took the initiative to get up and admit the person in.

Lo and behold, a collared Ace stood at their doorstep in polka-dotted pyjamas with a suitcase in hand and murder in his eyes.

They stared at each other for a solid second.

"Pft."

"Shut up," Ace growled, looking like an angry hamster with tufts of his auburn hair sticking up.

"I didn't even say anything," Cuifen wheezed, pressing her balled fist to her mouth as a choked sound left her throat.

Ace shot her a disgruntled look as he stomped in like he owned the place with Cuifen tailing him while trying to suppress her laughter.

"Look who's here, guys," Cuifen hollered, coming to a stop beside Ace who was blinking in surprise at the sight of the new-and-improved lounge area.

"I thought this place was unlivable," Ace said, scratching his head.

"And yet, you look like you're planning to move in," Jaemin said sarcastically as he gestured to the suitcase Ace was carrying.

"Oh, hey! You're joining us after all." Kalim craned his neck from his sitting position on the floor to beam at Ace. "There are still some snacks left."

"Ace, what have you done?" Yuu sighed, cuddling up with Grim who stared bemusedly at the heart-shaped collar around Ace, probably trying to recollect where and when it had seen it.

"Why do you automatically assume it's my fault?" Ace grumbled, allowing Cuifen to lead him to an armchair beside Jaemin and Jamil's loveseat.

Deuce rolled his eyes. "One, we are well-acquainted with your personality at this point. Two, only rule-breakers get collared by the dorm leader. So naturally, we will think it's you who is at fault."

"I didn't even do anything wrong, smartass!" Ace said, throwing himself onto the plush upholstery after setting down his suitcase. "Ugh, that tiny red bastard...from this day on, I'm joining Ramshackle Dorm."

"Aren't you acting a little too impulsively?" Jamil piped up, wry amusement lacing his dulcet tone as he propped up his chin with his hand on the armrest.

"No," Ace said mutinously before tacking on, "Senpai" when Cuifen whispered to him that the dark-skinned boy with braids was older than him.

"Have a snack and a drink first before we continue," Kalim cajoled, handing him a platter of chicken nuggets.

Accepting it with a fleeting smile, Ace shoved a nugget into his mouth and muttered darkly as he chewed.

' _I have never seen anyone eat a nugget so angrily...'_ They collectively thought with a sweat-drop.

Unable to reign in her laughter, Cuifen dissolved into a fit of giggles and collapsed in the huge armchair beside Ace. The boy leaned into her warmth when she pulled him into a one-armed hug with a pout framing his lips, probably used to open affection like this since he had an older brother.

Jaemin could feel Jamil tensing up beside him the moment Cuifen draped herself over the ginger-haired boy. The pink-haired boy sighed inwardly, sending a silent prayer for Ace who was bound to be the target of Jamil's misplaced sense of jealousy.

_'Cuifen must really be Jamil's type if he's already crushing on her, huh. I mean, I can see the appeal? She's jacked as hell and that's hot.'_

"You're too cute, oh man." Cuifen tucked Ace's head into the juncture of her neck while she pressed her cheek against his head. "You came over with a suitcase and everything, what the fuck."

Jaemin chanced a look at Jamil and wanted to cry at the fact that the boy looked like a grumpy cat deprived of its owner's attention with his pursed lips and downcast eyes.

_'Cuifen, wife him already. Please.'_

"I'm not cute. I'm full of rage, spite, and cherry pie," Ace huffed, crossing his arms. "And this is only for one night. I'm bringing in the rest of my stuff tomorrow if that pipsqueak doesn't remove this collar."

Deuce, Kalim, and Yuu shared a wide-eyed look as if to say, "That's only for one night?"

"Ah! That collar is the same kind as the one that red-haired upperclassman put on me during the opening ceremony. Why’re you wearin’ that?" Grim said with a cock of its head, finally remembering that it had been forced to wear that collar yesterday.

Everyone leaned forward, full of anticipation.

Jaemin and Cuifen traded a knowing look, biting back their smirks.

"I ate a tart," Ace admitted in an undertone.

"You...ate a tart," Jamil parroted, looking at Ace as if he was the biggest idiot on earth.

With his anger rekindled, Ace launched into a recount of what had happened in Heartslabyul dorm with Riddle, his hands flailing wildly as he narrated his experience. Cuifen had to lock her arms around him to prevent his hand from hitting her in the face as he progressively got more heated nearing the main part.

By the end of his explanation, _everyone_ was looking at him as if he was the biggest idiot on earth.

"Riddle can be too strict sometimes but you truly deserved this. You ate his food without his permission after all. That's a little rude of you, don't you think?" Jamil said bluntly; the sneer in his voice was almost tangible as he idly toyed with the end of a braid.

Jaemin gulped. _'Damn, Jamil has it out for Ace now.'_

"You're a one-of-a-kind idiot," Deuce said with a shake of his head.

"Grudges over food are the worst so it makes sense that Riddle reacted like that. And what if the tarts were for a party? You might have ruined his plans by eating one of them," Kalim said sensibly.

Grim placed its paws on its hips. "Jamil-senpai and Kalim-senpai are right. You've only got yourself to blame."

"But isn't he overreacting by sealing my magic just ’cause I ate his tart!? It’s practically the same as tying my hands and my feet!" Ace whined, tugging at the collar around his neck that felt like a vice.

"It does sound like he went overboard," Yuu began, tapping their cheek thoughtfully. "But-"

"But?" Ace challenged, jutting out his chin.

"You're _both_ in the wrong," Yuu finished.

"It's best to just apologise to him," Jaemin suggested. "That way, everyone will get what they want."

"Come on, guys. Let's be a little more sympathetic for Ace," Cuifen said with a sigh of fond exasperation, patting Ace on the head. "It must feel horrible to have this heavy thing around his neck."

"It is," Ace mumbled, slightly pacified by having at least one person on his side.

"Binding your magic which is essentially an extension of your body _is_ horrible," Deuce added. "That's why Riddle is known for being a tyrant since he uses his unique power on someone for the littlest of blunders."

Emboldened by someone agreeing with him, Ace perked up. "YEAH! He's just a tyrant abusing his power!"

"Now, now, I won't go that far to call him a tyrant," Kalim interjected with a nervous laugh.

Jamil shot the boy in Cuifen's arm a quelling look. "That 'tyrant' is still your senior, show a little more respect to him."

"He could have been a little more lenient and you could have been a little more emotionally intelligent," Cuifen summarised. 

Thoroughly chastised, Ace deflated. "Okay, okay, I'll go apologise to him tomorrow but you guys better come with me. I'm looking at you, Jaemin. Since it was your suggestion."

"Yes, yes," the boy said with an indulgent smile and an "okay" sign.

"I think we have an extra room for you that's kinda clean," Yuu said, "since you're joining us for the night."

"Oooh, can we have a sleepover?" Kalim's eyes lit up like fireworks. "That will be so much fun!"

"My stuff is back in the dorms," Deuce said, looking disappointed.

"Oh, I brought an extra set of pyjamas and uniform with me," Ace said, gesturing to his luggage at his feet. "We're about the same size so it should be fine."

"And we have disposable toothbrushes for everyone," Yuu said. "And it isn't even necessary for Ace to lend you his clothes. We have magical bags that give us everything we need."

Everyone stared at Yuu, mystified.

"Are you serious?" Kalim asked, awe written all over his features.

"Yeah, I had it with me when I first woke up in this world," Jaemin said with a shrug.

Ace looked around the room with a wild glint in his eyes. "Wait, what the hell did I miss?"

"I'll tell you later," Cuifen mumbled.

Deuce blinked, deciding to just go with the flow of this hectic day. That explained why Yuu told him he might as well shower here since they could give him clothes to change into. He had just assumed the headmaster had given Yuu extra sets. "Wow, okay, everything is settled then. Looks like I will be sleeping over tonight."

Everyone else also took it in stride. Enchanted bags weren't the most far-fetched thing they had heard tonight.

Cuifen shrugged. They could always take out inflatable mattresses and blankets from their bags so there shouldn't be a problem carrying out this idea. It sounded fun too. "I don't see why not. We can pile up the mats here and sleep together in the lounge area. It's the cleanest place in this dorm so far."

"Kalim, we shouldn't impose. We've been here far too long," Jamil reminded his master with brows furrowed, displeased.

They could picture dog ears on Kalim's head flopping down as the albino gave Jamil a pleading look. "Jamil, please~. Just for tonight!"

"You wouldn't be imposing. We're inviting you, there's a difference," Cuifen said.

"We're the dorm leaders. We shouldn't be allowing this," Jamil said uncertainly, weak in the face of Cuifen's open earnestness.

"We're not breaking any rules. It isn't even curfew yet," Kalim said mulishly.

"We don't have our belongings either."

"Didn't you hear what Yuu said? Our bags can take care of that," Jaemin said, raising his hand as if he was in a classroom waiting to be picked on by the teacher so that he could speak.

"Oh my Seven, dude, just stay over for the night!" Ace cut in, throwing up his hands and nearly gouging Cuifen's eyes. "Everyone wants you to!"

"Your dorm doesn't even have locks. It won't be safe for Kalim," Jamil said, coming up with another excuse.

"If anyone's out to assassinate Kalim, I think a shitty-looking dorm like this is the last place they will look for the heir of the Asim family," Jaemin said dryly.

In a blink of an eye, Jamil's expression hardened and his voice grew frosty. "How do you know Kalim is the heir if you're not from this world?"

Jaemin paled. Shit, he had gotten too loose-tongued and fucked up.

Jamil was naturally distrusting of strangers since they could be potential enemies targeting Kalim for his status as a noble. His suspicions were not unfounded due to Kalim's past kidnapping experiences. Of course he would latch onto a slip of information like this that could insinuate anything dubious or downright nefarious.

Before the uneasy silence could drag on for too long, Cuifen stepped in. "I asked Crowley last night about your background 'cause I was curious to know what kind of people my dorm leaders are. I told Jaemin about it afterwards."

She had delivered the lie so smoothly that even Jaemin himself was inclined to believe her although he knew what the actual truth was.

"I see." Jamil nodded stiffly, his tense posture slackening. "I just had to make sure."

"So it's fine if we sleep over here tonight, right? I trust them," Kalim said with round guileless eyes.

"You'll trust anyone who smiles at you once," Jamil said without any bite to his words.

"Jamil, let him have this. Just this once. We are all having fun, aren't we? Why not just make this a sleepover?" Cuifen said with a tender smile.

"It's fine if you're uncomfortable with it, senpai," Deuce said tentatively, "but I also think it will be fun if we make this a sleepover."

Kissing his teeth, the dark-haired beauty mulled over the pros and cons as well as calculating the risks involved before conceding begrudgingly. Everyone was ganging up on him anyway; there was no other option. Yet, he still felt like he had made the right decision when he saw a small, seraphic smile playing on Cuifen's lips.

The albino cheered upon receiving Jamil's go-ahead.

"This shouldn't be a reoccurring thing," Jamil said sternly, only to be waved away by Kalim who was currently too happy for getting his way to feel dispirited by anything.

"Come on, senpai. Don't be such a worrywart, nothing is going to go wrong. It's just a bunch of teenagers sleeping together in one place," Ace said with a yawn, nuzzling against Cuifen. "Man, and I thought Juice was the killjoy."

Jaemin wondered if Ace even had a single ounce of self-preservation in his body. He wanted to grab the boy by the shoulders and scream at him to not antagonise Jamil who was already out for his blood.

"OI! My name is Deuce, not Juice!" The navy-haired boy said, his hackles raising.

Jamil didn't look too upset by Ace's comment. Maybe he had heard it too many times by others and got used to it.

"Guess I have to get going then. It's already ten," Jaemin said, getting to his feet. His heart was still pounding from that fright Jamil had given him. Jesus fuck, Jamil and Cuifen would be such a power couple with their intimidating factor. "I'm sleeping at Octavinelle dorm tonight. My roommates probably think I'm dead or non-existent."

"Aww, do you have to? There's no harm sleeping here for one more night," Yuu said, frowning. "It's pretty late already. You might disturb your roommates. And this sleepover won't be the same without you."

"You are bringing up very good points and I hate myself for being convinced by them." Jaemin narrowed his eyes at them. "You know what? Fine. Azul-senpai can go on thinking I'm not a real person or whatever."

"I'll inform him of your whereabouts tomorrow. We are in the same class after all," Jamil said.

"Thanks, man," Jaemin said, returning to his spot beside the brunet.

Grim huffed impatiently. "Okay, now can we get back to watching the show?"

"I'll take a shower first," Cuifen said, untangling herself from Ace. Thank God, the nurse had magicked away most of the blood, sweat, and dirt on her, or else she would have soiled the boy's clothes.

She headed upstairs, leaving the rest of them to binge the first season of the show.

Faintly, she could hear Kalim say, "Since staying up late is a part of sleepovers, can we continue-"

The firm "NO" that cut him off could only belong to one person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jamil won't clean up ramshackle dorm out of the goodness in his heart lmao, it's too OOC for him. baby boy only did it here becoz he wanted to impress cuifen


	7. Carnality and Chestnuts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ➼ i somehow made hair-combing erotic im sorry
> 
> ➼ and this is the longest chapter in this fic so far oof

At eleven p.m. sharp, Jamil forced them to get ready for the bed. Fortunately for him, he received minimal whining since everyone was already tired out from the excitement of the day. While the rest went upstairs to brush their teeth, Cuifen laid out the plush futon beds two by four with a levitation spell she had learnt after watching Jamil use it to move the furniture from the centre of the room.

It seemed like the game mechanism allowed spellcasting to come naturally to them but, in exchange, made it harder for them to tap into their unique magic. She wasn't complaining since being able to wield magic in the first place was already a fortuitous gift. As long as she could survive in this world, she didn't mind if she only had a meagre amount of mana.

By the time the others came back downstairs, Cuifen had already called dibs on the mattress nearest to the foyer and was scrolling through her phone. Seeing the one empty mattress beside hers, Jaemin strategically planned their friends' sleeping arrangement so that Cuifen's favourite character would get that specific spot by her side.

"Okay, I'm going to be sleeping here. Yuu, you sleep there with Grim. Grim snores too loudly so I want it to be the farthest away from me-"

"OI! I DON'T SNORE."

"Ace, you can take the mat at the corner. I have a feeling you roll around in your sleep."

"H-How do you know that?"

"That means Deuce have to take the other corner and Kalim, you are going to sleep beside me. You're okay if I hug you in my sleep, right?"

"Yeah, I don't mind cuddling with you!"

With a shit-eating grin, Jaemin grabbed Jamil by the shoulders and steered him to the mattress beside Cuifen who looked up at them bemusedly with her eyebrows raised. "That means this is your spot~. Now good night." With that, he hopped over to his mattress and settled down, satisfied with his match-making.

Cuifen turned her head to the side to shoot Jaemin an incredulous look before laughing softly to herself. _'I've never had a wingman before.'_

Tentatively, Jamil sat down at the edge of his mattress, his obsidian hair cascading down his back and pooling around his waist like a waterfall of ink gathering into a small lake. Without the golden metal cuffs binding his hair in tight braids, the tresses flowed free and framed his heart-shaped face that was partially illumined by the low lighting of the room. The other half remained in the shadows, giving him a surreal appearance as if he had one foot in a different realm. Bereft of his heavy makeup, his face looked softer, daintier and elven but no less beautiful.

Enraptured, the woman watched through half-lidded eyes as supple fingers ran themselves through the locks still glistening with pearl-like water droplets, evening out the tangles and split ends. Lulled into a trance by watching the constant riveting motion of Jamil combing his hair with his hands, Cuifen didn't even know what she was doing until it was too late to back out.

She had shifted closer to Jamil to take a tendril of hair and coiled it around a finger, marvelling at the softness of it before threading her entire hand into his hair. The moment Jamil could feel her hand graze the exposed skin of his nape, he stiffened for a second but then inexplicably melted into her touch. Upon realising what she had done, she froze but made no move to let go.

Oh fuck, now she was panicking.

"Are you going to tie it for me?" Jamil's tenor voice spoke in a measured cadence, shattering the charged silence between them.

Cuifen allowed a few strands to slip through the gaps between her fingers. "Erm, I don't know how to braid, remember? Is it fine if I just brush it?"

She received a hum in response and took it as a green light. She reached for the simple black comb placed beside him and began raking it through his hair from top to bottom, her left hand coming up to keep his head in place by holding the junction between his shoulder and neck.

"Sorry about touching you without your permission just now," she said, her words coming out in a gravelly voice that was deeper than she had expected as the teeth of the comb lightly scraped his scalp.

She could feel a shiver wracking the boy's slender form and eased up the pressure of her hand, assuming that he was discomfited by it.

"It's fine," he whispered, voice sounding a tad strained. "I'm used to being touched all of a sudden. Kalim is a rather tactile person."

The teeth caught on a knot and a muffled keening sound left his lips. After apologising to him, she continued at a slower pace, not wanting to hurt him again. He had quite a thick layer of hair so it would take some time to unravel the tinier gnarls but she didn't mind. She could stay this close to him for a little longer.

Speaking of the non-existent distance between them, she noticed that with every breath she took, the mild scent of petrichor and underlying citrus permeated her nose. The latter fragrance came from her shampoo and by chance, Jamil had chosen it.

Just knowing that he had something of hers on his person roused something primitive within her. It stirred awake in her chest, clawing its way up her throat and rattling her ribcage, wanting to be unleashed upon the unsuspecting boy. Seeing him growing pliant and soft underneath her ministrations didn't help either. There was something undeniably tempting about the sensual arc of his back, the smooth meldable flesh beneath her fingers, the bare mocha-dark skin of his neck and the soft sighs of pleasure she was wrenching out of him.

There were a couple more things she could do to pull out all sorts of sounds from him, she thought darkly.

With pupils blown wide and jaws clenched, she succeeded in reigning it back in despite it clouding her mind with all-consuming _want._

Once it was buried deep down once more, she shut her eyes and exhaled, her breathing coming out ragged _._

_Shit, she had almost lost control._

The background chatter of her friends reeled her back to reality, helping her ground herself as she adjusted her position. She stretched out her legs so that they ended up bracketing Jamil's smaller frame. If he leaned back a little, he would be completely pressed up against her in her arms.

Her hand faltered at the mere thought of holding him.

Not more than a few feet away from Cuifen and Jamil, Kalim and Jaemin were listening attentively to the others narrate about their adventure in the mine. Deuce and Yuu tried to stick to the actual events as much as possible but with Grim and Ace throwing in more dramatic, exaggerated accounts of what really happened, it was nearly impossible for the story to remain completely true.

"Woah, so that's how Cuifen got hurt?" Kalim breathed, mouth shaping into a perfect 'o'.

"Mhm, if she was slower by a second or so, she would be trapped in that cave. It took her a long time to get out since she was holding back the monster to let us escape," Deuce said grimly, repressing a shiver as "what-ifs" raced through his mind, grisly scenarios of what else could have happened being conjured by his overactive imagination.

Ace scowled but the solemn tone of his voice gave away his true feelings. "Tch, her hero complex would have gotten her killed."

"Aish, she really did do some kind of reckless shit like this," Jaemin huffed, slapping the heel of his palm against his forehead.

He mentally noted that Deuce had mentioned something about Cuifen controlling shadows to save them. He resolved to ask Cuifen once they were alone if that truly was her unique magic. His theory that their innate powers only worked during times of emergency was solidifying.

"Speaking of Cuifen...she's getting along with Jamil-senpai, isn't she?" Yuu said in a hushed tone, a knowing glint entering their eyes as they all turned to the aforementioned pair.

"Oh, he's letting her comb his hair," Kalim said with a puzzled tilt of his head though there was no accompanying jangle of his earrings since he had taken them off. "He rarely lets _me_ do that."

Deuce's brows disappeared into his hairline as he slowly caught onto the implications.

"Is it me or is there some kind of..." Ace squinted his eyes as his voice grew softer. "Sexual tension?"

Grim made a strangled gasp and Yuu quickly covered its ears.

"Don't corrupt the baby," Yuu hissed at Ace.

"I"m just saying it as it is!" Ace squeaked.

Jaemin bit back a squeal as he watched Cuifen's hands leaving behind lingering touches on Jamil's neck. "Oh my God, it's working!"

"What's working?" Kalim said innocently.

"Oh, you sweet summer child," Jaemin said with a saccharine but not patronising smile, patting Kalim's shoulder.

"I think we should all go to sleep," Deuce said far louder than necessary as he hid under his covers with his face turning beet-red.

Upon hearing him, both Cuifen and Jamil flinched and separated hastily.

"Dude, you ruined their moment," Yuu mumbled as they looked down at a shellshocked Grim. "And I think we broke Grim."

"We might as well go to bed now," Ace said with a furtive glance at the pair who were still stuck in their own little world, trading tender looks and shy smiles. "Yuck, couples."

"Jealous?" Jaemin elbowed Ace with an eyebrow wiggle. "Don't worry, you'll find the one someday."

"Oh fuck off."

With that, they dispersed and tucked themselves under their blankets, calling out: "Good night" in unison. Kalim and Jaemin instantly snuggled up to each other; Yuu held Grim to their chest as if it was a plush toy; Deuce fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow and Ace's limbs were already spread out like an oversized starfish, flopping on Yuu's face.

On their other hand, Cuifen and Jamil had their backs to each other. The boy had pulled his duvet all the way up to his neck so that he could cover his blushing face whereas the girl curled her fingers into the sheets, missing the warmth of his skin against hers.

Their respective positions did not last for long.

Several hours later, marigold sun rays streamed into the room through the slit between the curtains, waking up Yuu whose face was unfortunately at the end of the light's trajectory.

As they sat up in bed, their sleep-addled mind tried desperately to cling onto the last dredges of a fading dream. What had it been about again?

Ruby roses. Rolling heads. Running away.

The flickering images constantly eluded their grasp so they gave up and put it at the back of their mind. Soundlessly, they rose to their feet, intending to wash up but froze in their tracks when they saw the sight laid out before them.

Ace had rolled off the futon and was curled up on the floor; Deuce was still sleeping on his back with a trail of drool at the corner of his lips; Kalim had turned upside-down in the middle of the night so Jaemin had ended up hugging the albino's calf.

But what nearly made Yuu lose it this early in the morning was the adorable sight of Jamil and Cuifen. The brunet's smaller figure was practically engulfed by Cuifen's strong arms; his face was burrowed into the crook of Cuifen's neck while her hand rested on the curve of his hips.

 _'This is like a romantic scene straight out of a k-drama!!'_ Yuu slapped their hand over their mouth to stifle their squeal. _'Oh God, I need to take a picture.'_

Within the next minute, they had snapped over twenty pictures of their friends at various angles with the ghost camera Crowley had gifted them. Last night's sleepover was a memory they wanted to treasure for as long as possible so these pictures of them were the perfect memento of it.

Pleased with the high-quality photos, Yuu set down their camera on the coffee table and headed to the bathroom. Afterwards, they went to the kitchen to do the dishes that had piled up from last night.

The second one to wake up was Jamil.

Blinking away the sleep pooling on his lids, he peeled open his eyes and saw black. He reeled back slightly—wondering if he still had his eyes closed—and discovered that he was locked in place. Slightly panicking now, he squirmed about but stopped, his breath hitching, when he heard a muted groan from above him.

Breath catching in his throat, Jamil peered up and saw the smooth pale column of Cuifen's neck.

Oh. Oh no.

Mildly alarmed but no longer frantic, Jamil assessed his situation. He could hear the steady thumping of Cuifen's heartbeat near his ear and feel the rise and fall of her stomach beneath his fingers which were hooked onto the fabric of the tee-shirt Cuifen had worn to bed last night.

The weight of her arm—which had been caging him the whole time—felt comforting instead of heavy or oppressing but he still felt a spike of panic when he realised they were _cuddling._ This was exactly what he was afraid of. Their legs were tangled around each other, their bodies were flushed against each other, his head was tucked under her chin, she was holding him in her arms, he was basically feeling up her abs which he could feel through the thin shirt and he was panicking and-

Did he mention he couldn't breathe?

How could he have slept through this when he was a light sleeper? He would wake up at the slightest of sounds and movements since Kalim was always the target of assassins and kidnappers and so this required him to be constantly vigilant. After all, they never knew when the Asim family's enemies would strike. Perhaps the warmth emanating from Cuifen had torn down all of his defences, making him feel safe and protected within her arms.

After taking a minute or two to calm down, he extracted himself from Cuifen's embrace with the utmost care lest he woke her. He pretended he didn't feel the cliché sensation of butterflies fluttering amock in his stomach after hearing her unwittingly let out a despondent sound when he moved out of her reach.

With heat crawling up his neck, he tiptoed past the still slumbering first-years and darted upstairs. After getting ready within ten minutes, Jamil padded into the kitchen where Yuu was just putting away the last of the dishes on the shelves.

"Good morning? Did you sleep well?" Yuu asked, scrutinising his expression.

He looked too impassive for Yuu to glean any kind of emotion from his countenance but his movements were suspiciously rigid as he checked their fridge which Yuu had stocked up before work yesterday.

"I slept fine," he told them coolly, taking out a couple of eggs and a sprig of rosemary before placing them on the kitchen island.

Yuu hummed, wondering if they should show him the pictures of him and Cuifen to evoke some sort of reaction from the taciturn boy.

"Oh, are you making breakfast? Is it for Kalim?" Yuu asked as Jamil rummaged through the drawers for utensils. "Jaemin keeps his kitchen stuff in the cabinet if that's what you're looking for."

Jamil pulled out the necessary items and shut the doors with his leg. "Yes, and thank you. I can make breakfast for all of us if you wish. You can get extra ingredients from your bags, right?"

"Oh, we'll be troubling you. It's fine. I can get Ace, Jaemin and Deuce some food straight out of the bags. Cuifen only drinks milk in the morning and I don't eat anything for breakfast unless it's sweet."

Jamil's lips pursed together as he turned on the stove and drizzled oil onto the frying pan. "That's not very healthy."

Yuu shrugged. "Can't help it." They then glanced at the time displayed on their phone screen. "I'm going to have to wake them up now. We should get to Heartslabyul as early as possible to find Riddle so that Ace can apologise to him."

"Ah, I almost forgot to tell you this." Jamil threw in the eggs and turned up the intensity of the fire. "Riddle isn't going to remove the collar with just a measly apology. Ace has to replace the tart he ate by getting Riddle another one. It has to do with one of the rules but I'm not sure which..."

Yuu lifted a brow. "Seriously? Ugh, he's not going to be happy about this."

"Lessons for first-years are focused more on classroom learning than magic training. He should be fine," Jamil said indifferently, plating three perfect egg rolls.

"So there's no point in Ace disturbing Riddle so early in the morning just to give him a half-assed apology," Yuu surmised with a sigh. "Okay then, might as well let him sleep in a little longer."

Yuu walked over to their tote bag which they carried around pretty much everywhere with them at this rate and pulled out pop-tarts for themself, a glass of plain milk for Cuifen and a box of ready-made hotcakes for Jaemin. They weren't sure what Ace and Deuce wanted for breakfast so they decided to let them get their own food later on.

Soon, the rest of them woke up one by one.

Deuce and Jaemin trudged into the kitchen, clothes rumpled and hair tousled. Yuu demonstrated to to the former how to procure items from the bag, simultaneously explaining how the bag's mechanics work. No matter how small or big the object was, the bag could still provide that particular object as long as they had used it or owned it once. For example, if they wanted to pull out a television, they would be able to do so but the item would be pocket-sized upon retrieval until it was set down. It would then enlarge into its original size within seconds.

Eagerly, Deuce tested it out for himself and took out a bowl of miso soup. "It didn't spill! I wasn't even expecting it to work for soup."

"Yeah, I don't know what's the logic behind that but you can take out a bowl full of food and flip it upside-down and nothing will happen. The magic on it only wears off when you put down the item," Jaemin elaborated, ripping open the box of hotcakes and eating straight from the packet.

"Do you think I can-?"

"Sorry to let you down but there are only three enchanted bags. One for each of us. They can't make more copies of themselves so it means this particular magic works exclusively for us," Yuu said matter-of-factly as Deuce deflated.

"Those bags can probably eradicate poverty if everyone can have it," Jamil piped up, setting down the food he had prepared for Kalim on the table.

"Too bad it doesn't work that way," Jaemin mumbled, licking away the crumbs.

Once the other three were awake, they all sat down to dine together at the table.

"Try some of these! Jamil's cooking is amazing!" Kalim exclaimed as he spooned some of the eggrolls onto Ace and Grim's plate.

Deuce stole one eggroll from Ace's plate while Jaemin and Yuu passed up on them, unable to stomach anything savoury or too heavy this early in the morning.

"Uwahh, the eggs are so fluffy and are seasoned just right," Grim commented, starry-eyed as it shovelled the food into his mouth.

"Would you like to try some?" Jamil asked Cuifen softly, holding out his dish while keeping his gaze averted since he still didn't dare to look her in the eye after waking up in a compromising position with her.

Nodding, Cuifen sampled the food and she made a contented sound. "Grim wasn't exaggerating. This is amazing. Kalim is really lucky to be able to have your cooking every day."

Flustering under her praise, Jamil swallowed his saliva. "I-I'm glad you enjoyed it." With courage he didn't know he had, he offered, "I don't mind sharing some of my cooking with you during lunch."

Nearly dropping her cutlery, Cuifen stared at the boy in disbelief. Recovering from the surprise, she gave him an effervescent grin and replied, "Really? I would love that."

Jamil nodded and ducked his head to conceal his rosy cheeks.

"That means you have to sit with us during lunch. Every day. Are you up for that?" Cuifen's question ended with a flirtatious lilt as the corners of her lips tugged up into a rakish smirk.

"Right in front of my salad," Deuce muttered, losing his appetite.

Jaemin jabbed his elbow into the navy-haired boy's ribs as a warning in case he ruined another moment.

"Why not? That sounds nice, doesn't it, Jamil?" Kalim chirped.

Cuifen's expectant gaze never strayed from Jamil's face. She was waiting for _his_ answer. No one else's.

Something in him thawed and unravelled.

"I-I don't mind," Jamil said, his lips stretching into a demure smile.

Cuifen's eyes crinkled into crescents from the size of her grin, making her look child-like and endearing at that moment. "Great."

"Great Seven, I just realised this. How am I supposed to change out of my clothes with this stupid thing around my neck!?"

This time around, it was Ace who ruined the moment.

Jaemin fought the urge to lunge across the table and throttle the auburn-haired boy.

With the spell broken, everyone returned to their meal.

Following that, Yuu told Ace about having to replace the tart he ate as compensation to Riddle and Kalim explained to Ace that clothes would just phase through the collar as a part of its magic so he could still change his attire. By the time they finished breakfast, Cuifen and Jamil had unknowingly inched closer to each other much to Jaemin and Yuu's glee.

"Hehe, I can't wait to start my bright and shiny academy life at Night Raven College!" Grim said while pumping its tiny fist in the air when they all finally got ready to head to campus.

* * *

The second day of class was just as boring as the first but now that Ace, Deuce, Yuu and Grim were joining them, at least they were suffering in unity.

"By the way, what are 'shrooms'?" Deuce queried after listening to Professor Crewel's speech.

Ace ruffled his hair in confusion. "Crap, I’m pretty bad with memorization."

"If it’s grass, we just have to figure out if it’s delicious or not, yanno?" Grim said, earning itself disgusted looks from everyone else.

"Jaemin, stop staring at Professor Crewel like you want to jump him," Yuu said through gnashed teeth, making a face as a drooling Jaemin let out a wistful sigh when the aforementioned professor cracked his teaching pointer against his desk.

"Pay attention, puppy," the man snapped, mistaking Jaemin's glassy eyes for inattention instead of ardent admiration. He then ran a gloved hand through his two-toned hair as he levelled the salmon-haired boy a censuring glare. "As much as I adore that hair colour on you, it doesn't mean I'll close one eye at the blatant lack of concentration during my lesson."

"Yes, daddy," Jaemin whispered the moment the man was out of earshot though all of his friends still heard him.

Yuu buried their face in their hands to muffle their agonised scream.

Cuifen snorted. "Jae has a BDSM kink, that's for sure."

The next period was Magical History. In this class, Jaemin and Cuifen actually took notes and paid Professor Trein their fullest attention. After getting a wake-up call during the mine incident, Cuifen knew she had to cram in any information existing about sorcery and witchcraft so that she wouldn't be stuck in a life-or-death situation without any basic spells in her arsenal.

As for Jaemin, he had gotten used to the groove of the school curriculum and had fallen back into his old high school habits of making notes, diagrams and mindmaps for every single thing. His desk was littered with Sarasa pens and multi-coloured pastel highlighters as he furiously jotted down the key points in Professor Trein's lecture.

Yuu, on the other hand, didn't really bother to listen attentively but still pretended to look as though they were since teachers deserved basic respect like this.

"Ugh, I want a more explosive and flashier class!" Grim whined, slamming its head on the desk.

"No one said going to school was fun," Yuu told the sulking creature. "Sometimes you'll have boring classes and sometimes, you'll have interesting ones. Remember what I said about you cherry-picking what you want to do at school? Yeah, you can't do that here. If you want to be a student-"

Petulantly, Grim finished their sentence for them, "I have to behave..."

"Very good," Yuu said, stroking its head.

Gym class was their next period and needless to say, no one in their friend group really enjoyed it.

Cuifen was constantly made the centre of attention by Ashton Vargas who kept singing praises of her physique.

"Look at our build!" He said with a condescending grin, flexing his biceps with a deadpan Cuifen forced to stand next to him like some kind of exotic exhibit. "This is the standard you have to set for yourself if you want to train to become a great magician! Use your classmate here as a model example."

The murderous look on Cuifen's face warded off most appreciative stares as no one dared to look her way and be subjected to her withering glare.

"Jamil is gonna go apeshit on everyone if he was here," Yuu said under their breath.

Jaemin winced. "Tell me about it."

"I don’t hate exercise, but I can’t handle teachers like him," Ace said scathingly, noticing Cuifen's growing discomfort.

"I have confidence in my physical abilities," Deuce said firmly, doing some warm-up stretches.

"What’s so fun about running around? I’m not a hamster, yanno?" Grim mumbled.

Yuu looked down at Grim and sweatdropped. _'We're about to run soon...will Grim be okay? It has shorter legs so...'_

It turned out that Grim would _not_ be okay. It dropped into a faint after one lap around the field and Cuifen had to carry it along with her as she ran.

By the time lunch arrived, they were all dead tired, some more so than the others. Thank God, they managed to prevent Grim from running away like it did in canon since Cuifen was still holding a dozing Grim in her arms. She didn't think she could muster the energy to chase this rowdy creature around the school if it had really gotten away.

The moment they stepped foot into the canteen, Grim's nose began twitching and it regained full consciousness.

"I SMELL FOOD!"

"We all do," Ace said dryly though there was a faint trace of amusement in his cherry-red eyes.

They found themselves a table large enough for five to six humans and settled down for lunch. Grim got itself a plate of omurice and immediately began waxing rhapsodic about the taste of it. That was when Ace began lamenting about how he was going to have to buy a cherry tart with what little pocket money he had when Deuce suggested using the trio's bags.

Cuifen and Jaemin tensed up as Ace's hopeful gaze landed on them.

"I won't need to waste money buying a tart if your bags will just give me one for free!" Ace exclaimed.

Jaemin suppressed the impulse to swear. Shit, Ace getting angry at Riddle for throwing away the mont blanc they made at the Unbirthday Party was the catharsis of Riddle's overblot. If that didn't happen, it would derail the plot they know and although he and Cuifen did not mind the slight tweaks, huge changes in the story progression were another thing.

Without any hesitation, Yuu handed over their tote bag to Ace. "Sure, go ahead."

With dread pooling in their guts, Cuifen and Jaemin watched as Ace reached into the bag and pulled out-

Nothing.

"Huh?" Ace muttered, digging around in the bag. "There's nothing in here."

"Let me try," Yuu said, their brows scrunching into a frown as the same thing happened to them. They tried again but with another object. When they pulled out their hand, a pen sat in their open palm. "Weird, it isn't providing us with a tart but I can take out other things."

"Maybe your bag is broken?" Deuce said, just as baffled as Yuu and Ace.

"I don't know. It's not like it came with an instruction manual," Yuu said with a groan.

Inwardly, Cuifen and Jaemin sighed in relief. Of course, the game mechanisms were working to fill up this plothole too.

"Fine, maybe the universe just wants to see me suffer!" Ace said dramatically, throwing up his hands. "How expensive is a fricking tart anyway!? I might have to starve for a few days after buying it but that's about it!"

"Well, instead of buying one, you can always make one?" An unfamiliar voice interjected, earning their rapt attention.

"Ehhh, aren't you the kids who broke the billion madol chandelier~?" Another voice chimed in, lilting and playful.

 _'And here comes Trey Clover and Cater Diamond,'_ Jaemin thought excitedly.

Grim's ears flattened down against its skull. "No one is gonna let us live it down..."

Ace clicked his tongue. "You damage school property _one_ time-"

"Two, actually," Deuce reminded, "you charred one of the Great Seven statues too."

The two new characters' dialogue was pretty similar to the original's though Cater had to introduce himself to them as well. This was the first time the other characters were meeting him since they hadn't run into him while he was painting the white roses red this morning. They proceeded to give a run-down of other dormitories and how they were founded, introducing a few main characters as well.

"Savanaclaw is a dorm that’s got a lot of athletes and guys that are good at scuffles~! They’re pretty brawny? Or I guess you could say, they’re all pretty buff? Like Miss-" Cater waved a hand in Cuifen's direction and bent down at the waist to give her simpering sweet smile. "What's your name, doll?"

"Cuifen. Ming Cuifen," she replied with a light chuckle.

"Ahh, it's so rare to have a girl in our school~. It's a pleasure to meet you, Cuifen!" Cater said with a coquettish wink. "You're really in top shape! No wonder Savanaclaw was one of your options~."

"Same here and thank you," Cuifen said politely, detached but amused nonetheless.

Deuce then spotted Kalim and Jamil making their way over to them.

"Senpais! Over here!" Deuce called, waving them over.

Cuifen's face brightened immediately upon seeing Jamil like an overexcited puppy seeing their owner return home.

Her friends looked at one another with matching amused smiles. _'She is too obvious...'_

"I've saved you a seat," Cuifen said with a beam directed towards Jamil, sliding to the left and patting the now empty spot beside hers.

The brunet blinked in surprise before returning her smile with a smaller one of his own. With his lunchbox in hand, he walked over to her side and sat down; the distance between them was practically non-existent since it was a tight squeeze with Deuce and Jaemin on the same bench.

Ace and Yuu scooted to the side for Kalim to sit in between them.

"You guys really came to sit with us," Jaemin said, slightly taken aback.

Kalim shot him a bemused smile. "Of course, we did. You're our best friends."

A metaphorical arrow pierced through the pink-haired boy's heart. _'Kalim, baby, you're going to climb all the way to the top of my favourite character list if you keep that up.'_

Deuce looked downright touched. "S-Senpai..."

Ace, Yuu and Grim physically blinked their eyes, blinded by the sparkles surrounding the carefree albino.

"Oh come on, I may be your upperclassman but we're so close now! So drop the formalities," Kalim laughed with a wave of his hand.

"Ehhh, I didn't know you befriended a bunch of firsties, Kalim," Cater said in a sing-song voice though his inquisitive gaze was mainly trained on Jamil.

The dark-skinned boy was already opening his lunchbox for Cuifen with an indulgent smile. The mere upturn of his lips lightened his brooding face upon seeing her ooh and aah over the food presentation, changing his outward look completely.

Kalim hummed non-committally. "It's wonderful hanging around them."

"Senpai, you can't keep saying this kind of corny stuff," Ace grumbled, shielding his reddening face with one hand.

Trey laughed. "It's good to see people from different years getting along."

"Can't say the same for Riddle and Ace," Jaemin muttered.

Jaemin's words flipped a switch in Ace and the ginger-haired boy's expression turned stormy. "Ugh, Rosehearts is the worst! I can't believe he'll leash me like some kind of dog just because I ate a tart. Isn't he being too extreme?"

Upon realising how the table was suddenly pin-drop silent, Ace looked up from his decimated bowl of pasta which he had been stabbing with a fork to see the petrified looks on his friends' visage. With a pained grimace, he asked, "Our prefect is behind me, isn't he?"

"Actually, he's to your left," Jamil drawled, picking up an octopus-shaped sausage from his lunchbox and transferring it to Cuifen's plate.

Ace whipped out around so fast that his neck let out a crick. He was met with the sight of Riddle levelling him with a sharp glare that could cut through steel. Ace's little comment about him ensued a one-sided argument as Riddle berated the younger male while the latter unsuccessfully tried to convince him to remove the collar.

Cuifen was too occupied with eating her meal and showering a flustered Jamil with her attention to listen to the heated conversation which she had already heard a thousand times in the gameplay. Jaemin, on the other hand, just stared at the two antenna-like cowlicks on Riddle's head and imagined himself tugging on them in his mind.

Once Riddle left their table's vicinity, the tension in the air dissipated.

"Erm, where were we?" Cater said with a nervous laugh.

"You were telling us about the dorms," Yuu reminded.

"Forget about that! Trey-senpai, you said something about making tarts instead of buying them just now," Ace said with a frustrated growl.

The bespectacled male scratched his cheek. "Ah, yes. I did. I was just suggesting that you can make a tart instead since it is expensive to buy them."

With mirth twinkling in his viridian-green eyes, Cater chimed in, "Those tarts you saw in the fridge were all made by Trey here, y’know~."

"You made all that, Trey-senpai?! Amazing! It’s better than what they sell here!"

"That's very flattering, thank you," Trey said with a benign smile. "I think I have most of the tools and ingredients here. But I won’t simply offer you my services. The next tart that Riddle wants to eat requires a lot of chestnuts. Would you mind collecting some for me?"

"It’s troublesome either way," Ace grumbled. "So, how much do you need?"

"It’s going to be used for the Unbirthday Party so about two to three hundred will do."

"That much!?" Ace, Deuce, Grim and Kalim yelled in sync.

"I’ll have you help me with roasting them and peeling them."

"Can I go back home?" said Grim.

Deuce raised his hand. "Count me out as well."

"I'll help you, Ace," Kalim said with a resolute glimmer in his scarlet eyes.

"Since Kalim is adamant on assisting you, I'm obligated to do so as well," Jamil said, resigned.

"You two are traitors," Ace said vehemently, pointing an accusatory finger at Grim and Deuce. "Kalim is my best friend now."

Cuifen kicked Ace's shin under the table. "What are we? Chopped liver?"

"You're my best friend. Kalim is my _second_ best friend," Ace amended. Kalim accepted it good-naturedly since Cuifen did save Ace back in the mine so naturally, he was fond of the woman. "Yuu, Jamil-senpai and Jaemin are somewhere in the middle."

"What an honour," Yuu said emotionlessly.

"There, there~. Making them together and then eating them together will make the treat more delicious~!" Cater said placatingly. "It’s that making memories thing~. It might help you start a cooking blog for all we know~."

Jaemin's eye spasmed. _'Homeboy has too many squiggly lines ending his sentences.'_

"Keep this a secret from the Prefect, but freshly made mont blanc is the best. The only ones who can eat it as soon as it gets out of the oven are the ones who made it, you know?" Trey said with a sly curl of his lips, knowing the effect his words would have on the rest.

True enough, Grim fell for it. "Hey, everybody! Get your rear in gear! We’re gonna go pick some chestnuts ‘til we drop!"

"Bribing you with food is the only way to get you to do things, huh?" Yuu said dryly. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?"

So that was how they _all_ got roped into picking chestnuts.

As expected of a prestigious academy, the forest behind the botanical garden was beautiful and well-tended. Replicating an idyllic scene from a picture book, the forest was astir and brimming with life. The warbling of birds and the rustling of other critters in the foliage drifted through the verdant greenery and most of the trees were laden with plump fruits and lush emerald leaves.

The forest floor was woven with ancient roots, covered with dense thickets of bushes and littered with faded petals and dry twigs. As the sundry group ventured deeper into the forest, their feet shuffled through leaf piles and a northwards zephyr susurrated in their ears. A bubbling brook murmured in the distance as the sunlight sieving through leaves shone on the iridescent wings of a dragonfly flitting across flaxen grass wisps and landing on Jaemin's finger.

It really did feel as though they had crossed into a fairytale realm.

Jaemin brought the dragonfly up to eye-level, admiring the hues of colour refracted in its shimmery wings.

_'I feel like a Disney princess.'_

"Fenfen, look! It's so pretty," Jaemin said with a raptured giggle, ambling over to the woman.

Cuifen recoiled, lips torquing into a scowl. "Get it away from me. I'm scared of animals."

"You're scared of animals?" Jaemin said incredulously just as the dragonfly took flight and landed on Jamil's braids instead.

The brunet didn't even notice the insect. Taking the lead, he had gone ahead of the group and was scouring the tree canopy in search of chestnuts.

"Not all of them. I'm okay with mammals and birds but animals with antennas, exoskeleton, pincers, slimy skin, scaly skin..." Cuifen trailed off as a shiver coursed through her.

"Noted," Jaemin said with a titter. "Jamil doesn't like bugs though. I wonder who's going to kill the insects in the relationship."

Cuifen merely gave him a half-hearted glower in response.

Soon, they reached the clearing of chestnuts trees and got to work with the help of Yuu's bag providing them with tongs, gloves and baskets. They worked at a sedate but consistent pace, picking up the ripest chestnuts and placing them in the baskets. With seven humans and one monster pooling their efforts, they were done in no time and their baskets were almost overflowing.

"Whew, we picked a lot!" Kalim swiped away the perspiration gathering at his hairline with the back of his hand. "Let's bring this back to Trey-senpai."

Jaemin picked up an empty basket. "Oh, you can go ahead without me. I want to pick some apples to make an apple pie for dessert tonight."

Yuu gasped in delight. "Holy shit, that sounds great! You know how to bake?"

"Just a little. Not as good as Trey-senpai, of course."

"If you need apples, can't you just get them from your bag?" Kalim asked.

Jaemin laughed nervously. _'The only apples I've had in my life were the cheap kind.'_

"I think the school has some good-quality apples that are perfect for apple pies, ya know? Besides, picking the fruit is part of the process."

"Whatever, you're weird, man," Ace said flippantly.

"I'll keep some leftovers for the rest of you tomorrow," Jaemin said, his smile widening when his friends cheered in unison.

"Okay, we'll be going first," Deuce said as he picked up three baskets at once and set off for the campus with the others.

Along the way, Cuifen took one or two baskets from Jamil despite his protests, grinning cheekily as she did so. "This is a 'thank you' for the food you shared with me."

"Now you're just being ridiculous. It isn't even that big of a deal." Jamil regarded the woman with a mixture of fond exasperation and amusement as he held out his hand. "Please give them back. At the very least, let me carry one of them."

Cuifen took one look at his outstretched hand and switched all of the baskets to her right arm before grabbing Jamil's hand. A shaky breath left Jamil's lips as the woman interlaced their fingers and let their hands hang between them, her larger rough hand practically enveloping his in its entirety.

"I-" Jamil's brain short-circuited as he goggled at their entwined hands.

Cuifen let out a chuckle—low and contained but unmistakably amused. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Jamil forced out in a tremulous voice, nearly tripping over thin air but was held upright by Cuifen's firm, unrelenting grip on him. Wanting to combust from sheer mortification, the boy tugged his hood up with his free hand and shrank into it.

Trailing behind the pair, their friends watched the scene unfold before them, thoroughly entertained. 

"That's so smooth," Grim squeaked, trying to keep its voice down.

"Aww, that's sweet. They're holding hands," Yuu cooed. "The ship is sailing!"

"Ship?" Ace mouthed soundlessly to Deuce and Kalim.

The two boys shook their heads and shrugged.

Meanwhile, Jaemin had come across a grove of apple trees ready to be harvested. The vein-like branches were weighed down by the copious number of fully ripe Granny Smith apples—their rich crimson hue causing Jaemin's mouth to salivate.

He set down the basket directly under a sturdy-looking branch before proceeding to scale the tree as nimble as a feline. Finding handgrips and footholds, he succeeded in climbing onto the aforementioned branch. Pressing his torso flat against the branch, he stretched out and plucked the fruits one by one before dropping them into the basket below him.

Once the basket was full, he straightened up and with a sinking sensation in his guts, realised that he did not know how to get down from the tree. He took in a lungful of air and looked skywards, asking for God to lend him the necessary patience and strength to get himself out of this situation.

"I fucking hate myself."

Groaning, he tried to swing one leg over the branch so that he could hang off of it and drop himself once his feet were a few inches above the ground. However, he underestimated the momentum of the swing and ended up throwing his entire body over the branch. Screaming as he descended, he braced himself for the bone-shattering impact.

So imagine his surprise when instead of making contact with the hard ground, his body was cushioned by a pair of arms.

He opened his eyes (he didn't even realise he had shut them) and met downturned heterochromia eyes staring at him intently.

Thin lips split into a manic grin to reveal a row of shark-like canines.

"Oya? Looks like I've caught myself a little salmon~."


	8. Mushrooms and Marron

"Oya? Looks like I've caught myself a little salmon~."

Sirens blared in Jaemin's head as he gaped up at the familiar boy carrying him. A distinguishing black strand of hair amongst the turquoise blue dangled over Jaemin's face when yhe boy tilted his chin to lock gazes with Jaemin; his gold and olive eyes studied him with an unnerving intensity whilst his paper-thin lips stayed stretched in that ear-to-ear grin.

_'Oh shit. It's Floyd. Damnit, I've been trying to avoid the Leech twins 'cause they creep me out...'_

"Where's the rest of your crew, hm? I don't see Starfish, Shrimp and Seally anywhere~."

"W-Who?" Jaemin croaked, clasping his hands to his chest since he didn't know where to put them.

He had probably lost ten years of his life after that fright the fall had given him. His heart was still pounding at a hundred miles per hour and with him pressed up against Floyd, he was pretty sure the other boy could hear or feel it.

Floyd hefted him up to adjust his hands on the small of his back and his thighs. "The cool-looking girl you're with, the tiniest one of your bunch and the little cat-racoon of course~. You never go anywhere without them. You've probably been staying with them the past two nights, ne? No wonder we don't see you around in the dorm any more after the first day, Salmon-kun~."

_'Starfish? Ah, Cuifen's birthmark under her eye does look like a star. So I guess that makes me 'Salmon'. Is it because of my hair dye?'_

In that distinctive musical voice, Floyd continued talking as he shifted Jaemin to his left arm—forcing Jaemin to frantically loop his hands around Floyd's neck as he felt himself being placed in the crook of the teal-haired boy's elbow—and picked up the basket of apples. "Well~, I don't blame you since first-years have to room with three other people. You probably have your own room in Ramshackle Dorm, don't you?"

Finally finding his voice, Jaemin spoke again in a more even voice, "I didn't expect you to even notice I wasn't around, Floyd-senpai."

"Ehhh, you know who I am~?" Floyd's pitch rose at the end of his sentence as he fixed Jaemin with a lazy smile. "Heh, didn't think you would recognise me since we barely see each other."

Jaemin sweatdropped. _'Why is he so hung up on me not staying at Octavinelle? It's not like there is a rule about sleeping over at other dorms. Right?'_

"A-Ah, sorry, I'm still getting used to attending a boarding school so I've been staying at Ramshackle Dorm with my friends. They're familiar so it comforts me, you get what I mean?" Jaemin explained, swallowing his saliva as Floyd carried him out of the apple orchard and to God-knows-where.

_'Where the hell is he taking me? Sweet baby Jesus, what if he is planning to kill me in the woods where no one can hear me? Dear God, please don't let me die as a virgin.'_

Floyd lifted a brow; his predatory smile was still present on his lips. "Ramshackle Dorm?"

"Yes," Jaemin said, looking at the passing scenery instead of the boy.

He couldn't help it. Ingrained instincts told him to never look at Jade in the eye after discovering his unique magic while playing the game and although this was Floyd, the resemblance between them still disconcerted him.

"How do you live in a dump like that?"

"It's not that bad...Jamil-senpai helped us clear the dust in the lounge area and we kinda just sleep there together like a big sleepover or whatever."

"Oh~?" Floyd seemed to catalogue this information as important, judging by the scheming glint in his mismatched eyes. "That sounds fun~."

"S-So, is it okay for me to sleep over at Ramshackle Dorm indefinitely?" Jaemin fumbled with his words, feeling his chest constrict with a knot of anxiety and well-founded fear.

"Hmm, there's no rule that states you can't. But what's wrong with Octavinelle? Is something bothering you, little Salmon~?" Floyd said with another broad grin playing on his lips but there was with a hint of danger to it. "Or is it someone?"

"NO!" Jaemin rushed to deny his senior's statement, ending up speaking louder than necessary. With panic visible on his pale face, the boy added, "There's nothing wrong with Octanivelle! It's beautiful but I just like Ramshackle Dorm more. It's the, er, it's the—there's a charm to the place! You know?"

He was partly telling the truth. How could he not find Octanivelle breathtaking when the dorm was located underwater and was modelled like a replica of the Atlantis kingdom? With its winding spires of corals, whorls of seafoam and towers of marbled glass letting slivers of light through to create what seemed to be a rainbow prism from afar, Octavinelle was a palace fit for Poseidon.

When he had first seen it, he had stopped in his tracks and just stared at the architecture for a solid minute until one of his year mates bodily dragged him along so that he wouldn't obstruct everyone's way. Some days, Jaemin liked to entertain the idea of him becoming an architect if he hadn't accepted the scout's offer; if life had gone the way he wanted; if-

If a lot of other inconsequential things, which he shouldn't dwell on, had happened.

Jaemin tuned in back in time to catch Floyd's next comment.

"Charm?" The word rolled off Floyd's tongue as smooth as butter. "Fufufu, you're a strange one, Salmon-kun."

"We just have different preferences, that's all," Jaemin said, lowering his head meekly. Eager to change the subject, he said, "You can put me down now by the way."

"Oh? It's fine~. We're almost there anyway."

"Erm, where is 'there'?"

"My brother is scavenging for some mushrooms right now. He should be somewhere...ah! There he is~."

In a glade, the other twin was stooped over the base of a conifer tree with his back turned to them. Upon hearing Floyd calling his name, he rose to his feet and pivoted on his heels, a greeting on the tip of his tongue. If he was surprised or puzzled by the sight of Jaemin being carried by Floyd in one arm, his imperturbable face and cryptic smile didn't show it though the split-second hesitation said it all.

"Jaemin, is it?" Jade said, lifting his basket of shiitake mushrooms. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Er, yeah, likewise," Jaemin said with his gaze firmly fixed on a spot somewhere to the right of Jade's ear. "You can put me down now, Floyd-senpai. I must be getting heavy for you."

"No, not at all~. You're too light, actually. You should eat more, Salmon-kun." Floyd gently deposited Jaemin on the ground and handed the basket of apples to him once he was standing on his own two feet. "There you go."

Jaemin accepted the basket and awkwardly bowed at the waist. "Thank you for catching me, senpai."

Floyd rubbed the back of his head with a laugh. "It's no problem at all~. We won't want your neck snapping in half, do we?" And he said this while wearing his trademark shark grin.

_'This isn't the kind of thing you should say with a smile like that!!'_

"Yeah...I mean, no, I don't want that," Jaemin said, smiling weakly as he glanced at his bare wrist. "Oh, look at the time! I have to get these apples back to Trey-senpai. I'll be going now, senpais."

"Aw, already?" Floyd pouted. "Okaaay, see you soon."

"If you need any help, you'll always be welcome at Mostro Lounge," Jade said with a smile that was meant to be amicable but it merely sent a chill down Jaemin's spine. "We'll be more than happy to set up an appointment for you."

_'Oh fuck no, I'm not making a deal with Mister Hentai Tentacles.'_

"Er thanks but no thanks!" Jaemin said over his shoulder as he ran off as fast as he could with a basket of apples.

Watching his retreating back, the identical twins gave each other a meaningful look.

"Poor thing is absolutely terrified of us. It makes one wonder what sort of reputation we have made for ourselves," Jade said, raising an elegant hand to his mouth.

"It is weird, ne? First-years usually don't know much yet but he instantly has his guard up around us~," Floyd said as he crossed his arms behind his head. His carefree smile sharpened at the edges. "What a clever little fishy."

* * *

"I can't understand why so many fangirls simp over those twins. They're scary as hell," Jaemin muttered to himself as he trudged into the Heartslabyul kitchen.

In the corner of the room, a stone-faced Deuce was staring at the wallpaper as if it held all the answers to the universe. At the kitchen island, Kalim and Yuu were peeling the chestnuts with Grim roasting the peeled ones with his fire magic. Trey was adjusting the temperature of the oven while Cuifen, Ace and Jamil were mixing ingredients.

"Oh hey, you're back! Did you get the apples?" Kalim greeted, cracking open a chestnut.

In response, Jaemin grinned and lifted the basket into the air. "Yep, I did. What's up with Deuce though?"

"He's just in shock. We told him eggs sold in supermarts aren't fertilised so they won't ever hatch into chicks," Yuu said, giggling. "The epiphany was probably life-changing for him."

"They weren't fertilised..." Deuce said blankly, hugging his legs to his chest.

Jaemin blinked his eyes at the scene before sighing and making his way to the kitchen counter, passing by a disgruntled Jamil chewing out Ace.

"Ace, you shouldn't make Cuifen do all the work," Jamil said with a reproachful frown as he watched Cuifen whisked the batter for Ace.

The terracotta-haired boy pouted. "But she has more arm strength than me! My arm feels like it's about to fall off."

Jamil heaved a sigh and brandished a wooden spoon at him threateningly. "At least make yourself useful and pipe the meringue if you're already tired from that. For your information, this is _your_ apology tart we're making."

"Yes, yes, senpai," Ace mumbled, thoroughly chastised, and picked up a pastry bag to fill it up with the meringue.

"Jaemin, Deuce, you two can mix the marron cream into the tart," Trey instructed, stirring the marron glasé in a pot.

For an hour or so, the group of nine worked in tandem, flitting from one station to the other as they prepared the necessary components. Once they were done topping the baked tarts with whipped cream and powdered sugar, they collectively cheered in delight.

"Waaah, these tarts are looking good!" Grim said, already salivating.

Deuce inhaled deeply; the cloying sweet smell in the air filling his nose. "Great work, guys."

"Oh man, I'm beat. My hands are so sore from peeling those nuts," Kalim bemoaned, massaging his fingers. "But the end products are so worth it."

"I enjoyed baking with everyone," Yuu said with a beam. "It went surprisingly well."

Jamil tossed his braided ponytail over his shoulder, sighing. "What are you talking about? It was utter chaos."

Cuifen reached over to wipe away the smear of flour on Jamil's cheek with her thumb. "But it was still fun, right?"

With his cheek cupped in her warm buttercream-scented hand, Jamil could only nod mutely after losing most of his brain's cognitive functions.

"As I've promised, you're allowed to sample them." Trey waved a hand over the treats, eliciting more thunderous whooping from the rowdier ones of the group. "Dig in."

"Nice work~ ♪ Did you finish the tarts? The decoration looks so cute!" Cater exclaimed as he entered the kitchen with his phone in hand. "It’s totally ‘grammable! Let me take a pic."

"A pic" turned out to be an entire photoshoot.

"Come on, I want to eat it already," Jaemin said, his patience running out as the orange-haired male took another photo from another angle.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm done now~."

They began eating their share of the desserts, their eyes widening comically as they did so.

"It's so good," Yuu sobbed, taking another big bite.

Grim emitted a delighted trill. "Whoa! It’s sweet, but it’s not super overpowering. My mouth feels like it’s in a field of chestnuts, yanno~!"

"I really thought one of us would fuck up and accidentally poison it but it's perfect," Cuifen said in wonder, nibbling on the tart to truly savour it.

"This is definitely worth the blisters I got," Kalim said through a mouthful of crust, nearly spraying a disgusted Deuce in the face with the mashed up bits.

"Yosh! Riddle can't possibly stay mad after eating this," Ace declared with whipped cream on his nose and forehead.

 _'Annaoop-'_ Jaemin thought, licking the powdered sugar around his mouth.

"You're eating like a barbarian," Jamil remarked flatly, handing Ace a napkin.

Deuce grinned. "This is a total success!"

"Oh, yeah. Do that for them, Trey-kun," Cater said as he nudged Trey in the arm with a conspiring wiggle of his brows.

"That? Oh, you mean _'that'._ " The bespectacled male turned to the others with a smile. "What are your favourite foods?"

"Mine's...cherry pie and hamburger."

"Mine is canned tuna. Oh, and cheesy omelette, grilled meat, pudding and-"

"If I were to choose, I'd probably pick omurice."

"Mine is spicy ramen~."

"Coconut juice!"

"I like curry the most."

Yuu pondered for a second before replying, "Tonkatsu."

"Kimchi fried rice is the best," Jaemin chirped.

"Brown sugar bubble tea," Cuifen said promptly.

"Alright, here we go. Doodle Suit!" Trey said with a flourish of his magical pen. "Now, take another bite of the marron tart, if you’d please."

A round of delighted exclamations ensued.

When Cuifen bit off another piece of marron tart, the familiar syrupy taste of tapioca and brown sugar filled her mouth. With a pleased hum, she idly thought that Trey's unique magic was truly impressive, more so than Riddle's, considering its versatility and how it could be applied in so many contexts. For example, Trey could overwrite the flavour of bland salad or any other food to make it more savoury and that could really help the less well-off people who could not afford seasoning and spices.

He could even overwrite properties of other items around them for malignant purposes. He could overwrite the attribute of poison gas around them to fool them into thinking they were breathing in oxygen; he could overwrite the attribute of paper to make it appear like money; he could overwrite the attribute of bleach or other toxic liquid as a beverage and serve it to a victim; he could overwrite the attribute of his own appearance to take on another identity to go around committing crimes he would never be accused of.

There were so many creative ways he could use his unique magic for both good and bad. Yet, Trey really believed there was nothing noteworthy about it. Cuifen couldn't tell if she should be glad or judgemental about the fact that Trey was rather stupid regarding this matter. One thing for sure was that the world should be thankful that such a powerful ability like Trey's did not belong to an evildoer or else everyone would truly be fucked.

Honestly, out of everyone's unique abilities, she wanted Trey's the most. His ability would make it easier for her to stick to her diets since she could overwrite the flavour of any food into her favourites.

Following that, Trey explained his unique magic to the awestruck first-years and proceeded to give Ace and Deuce permission to camp over in Ramshackle Dorm again.

"I'm going to sleep at Scarabia tonight," Cuifen announced as their group of eight exited Heartslabyul through the mirror.

"Oh, your bed is already prepared by the way," Jamil informed her as Yuu handed her their bag.

"Here, you can have this. I'll use your bag for now. It's back at Ramshackle Dorm, right?"

"Yep," Cuifen said as she slung the bag over her shoulder. "The only difference is the design, right? Then it doesn't matter which bag we use."

"Mhm," Jaemin affirmed as they split up into two groups—one headed to Scarabia and the other headed to Ramshackle Dorm. "See you tomorrow, guys!"

"See ya."

"Have a good night," Jamil with a nod of his head.

"See you tomorrow!" Kalim said, waving back cheerfully as the three of them stepped into the mirror connecting to Scarabia Dorm.

* * *

Jaemin awakened to the sound of the floorboard creaking and shot up into a sitting position.

He ended up scaring both himself and the silhouette as they let out a shriek in unison. By some kind of miracle, Yuu and Ace slept on beside him, blissfully ignorant of what was going on in the waking world.

"Jae, calm down. It's just me." Came the familiar voice of Deuce.

The pink-haired boy relaxed immediately. "Aish, I can't believe a little sound like that freaked me out. I thought it was one of the ghosts for a second."

"There are ghosts here?" Deuce said, walking over to sit down on Jaemin's futon.

"Well, yeah, but I haven't seen them around lately. I don't know what's wrong but not seeing them has been keeping me on edge because I feel like they are gonna pop out any minute, ya know?"

"Ah, that's understandable."

Their conversation came to a brief lull as Deuce shuffled over to his mattress.

"Why are you up so early? Using the bathroom?" Jaemin asked, settling back down after the mini jumpscare Deuce had given him.

Deuce seemed to hesitate before answering, "No...I actually couldn't sleep so..."

Jaemin propped his face up on his elbow, frowning at the other boy. "Oh? How come?"

"Don't make fun of me for this, okay?" Deuce said, looking distressed.

Sobering, Jaemin fixed Deuce with a serious expression. "Hey, lay it on me, bro. This isn't Ace you're talking to."

The navy-haired boy let out a snort before all traces of amusement on his countenance faded away. "Remember when I had to go to mines to get the crystal?"

"Yeah, that was like only two days ago. Why?"

"I-I have been having nightmares of that day," Deuce said and shut his eyes, bracing himself for a barrage of insults, a peal of mocking laughter; anything.

Instead, he received a rather sorrowful look from Jaemin whose myrrh eyes shone with tender sympathy and understanding as he crawled out of his sheets to inch closer to Deuce.

"Hey, look at me, come on. There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Jaemin said in a soothing low voice as he clasped Deuce's white-knuckled hands in his.

"Are you sure about that? Everyone else seemed to have recovered from that incident so easily but I still remember-" Deuce cut himself off as torrents of haunting images overwhelmed him, flickering through his head like a rapid slideshow and forcing him to relive that day.

"No, no, don't think about it that way. Your feelings are valid. If you're still feeling the lingering effects of that rather traumatising experience, in my opinion, that's normal. Go easy on yourself. That was the first time you've experienced something like that, right?"

"Yes but the rest-"

"They are probably coping with it in their own manner. You know how Ace and Grim are. They would rather suffer than show any sign of weakness. That's not healthy, of course, so I'm glad you trust me enough to tell me this."

Deuce lowered his head to conceal his teary eyes, feeling the tension seep out of him upon seeing how Jaemin was addressing his matter without any judgement at all.

"I can make some chamomile tea for you. I can't guarantee that the nightmares won't come back because they are part of the healing process but the tea will help you fall asleep more easily," Jaemin said softly.

"I appreciate that, thank you," Deuce said with a faint sniff.

"There's no need to thank me for something like this, dude. We're friends," Jaemin said, knocking Deuce's forehead lightly with his own.

This drew a watery laugh from Deuce who nodded and pulled his hands out of Jaemin's loose grip.

Jaemin then headed to the kitchen, switching the lights on to be greeted by the wispy form of a ghost phasing through the wall.

"Oh shit, I jinxed myself," Jaemin said, barely suppressing a screech.

"O-Oh, it's just you," the ghost stammered, jumping ten feet into the air after hearing him speak.

Strange, what could possibly scare someone who was already dead?

Was it Jaemin himself who was scaring it? Now that didn't make sense. That would be too backwards.

"Hey, haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?"

The ghost didn't seem to hear him. It looked around with a wild look in its vacant eyes, resembling a phantasmal sheen in the lighting of the kitchen. "S-She isn't here, is she?"

"Who? Cuifen? No, she is sleeping at another dorm right now. Why?" Jaemin asked, growing concerned when the plump ghost began wringing its hands and muttering under its breath in rapid-fire Japanese.

Something niggled at the back of his mind but he chose to ignore it in favour of interrogating the overwrought ghost. "Hey, talk to me. What's going on?"

"It's her!" The ghost wailed and Jaemin didn't even have the heart to tell it to keep it down because it seemed like it had been bottling it up for a long time. "She-She-"

"We're talking about the same woman here, right? Tall, tattooed, buff-"

His questioned a long resonant groan of despair that shook the four walls of the room, threatening to bring down the ceiling. The ghost flickered in and out of view with its face contorting into various tormented expressions, igniting a spark of fear in Jaemin.

"W-What the fuck?" Jaemin whispered, backing out of the kitchen as a sense of foreboding threatened to choke him from inside-out.

"I SEE IT!" It cried. "I CAN SEE IT."

"See what!?" Jaemin shouted in terror as the lamps overhead began swinging violently like pendulums from the tremors wracking the entire kitchen.

"RED! RED ON HER HANDS! IT'S ALWAYS THERE!" The ghost was full-on shrieking at the top of its no longer functioning lungs, its stumps for hands scratching at its deformed face and neck. "THE STENCH OF DEATH. IT LINGERS. SHE REEKS OF IT!"

Upon hearing the next sentence, his entire body froze up—a thousand pinpricks of ice-cold blades piercing his skin as everything came crashing down.

**_"DEATH FOLLOWS HER."_ **


	9. Tyrants and Trust

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh it feels like i absolutely MUST add in the squiggly line ~ for Cater, Che'nya and Floyd's speech as if it's DO OR DIE

Suffice to say, no one got much sleep that night.

The distraught ghost had nearly flattened the place to its foundations with its incessant shrieking, awakening even the deep sleepers as a result. Deuce had found Jaemin staring at it with visceral horror as it dissipated on the spot into a violently churning fog that eventually died into faint wisps. He was followed by Ace, Yuu and Grim who were all wild-eyed and groggy, having been forcibly dragged out of their slumber.

Deuce had witnessed the tail end of what had gone down in the kitchen whereas the rest had only caught snippets of the incomprehensible screams from both Jaemin and the ghost. However, none of them except Jaemin had heard what the ghost had disclosed word for word. In the end, they were too shaken up by the ghastly noise to go back to sleep—Jaemin obviously being the most affected—so they had huddled close and stayed up till morning playing Among Us together.

(Apparently, that mobile game existed in this world too.)

The chill from earlier on still hadn't left him. Instead, it burrowed its way into the hollow spaces of his chest and made a home for itself in there, encasing everything in its path in a solid block of ice. Being torn-up over this was draining him both mentally and physically and he just wanted to retreat into oblivion, shutting out the world and running away from his problems like he always did.

The game served as an adequate distraction for Jaemin's inner strife. He couldn't decide whether to storm into Scarabia to demand answers from Cuifen or forget this entire night happened to continue avoiding a fucked up reality that could potentially shatter his world view. The domestic bliss and easy banter he and Yuu shared with Cuifen had lulled him into a false sense of security, deluding him into thinking they were good friends when they were nothing more than strangers forced to rely on one another in a new environment.

It was rather childish of him to wish that he had misheard the ghost or chalk it up as a nightmare but he really didn't want things to change for the worse.

To think that he had been so desperate to erase this bone-deep loneliness that he had fooled himself into believing he had found what everyone else had. He had just wanted a home in someone like all the characters in the shows, movies and dramas he had watched because, unlike a house or a shelter, that figurative home was eternal—transcending worlds and lifetimes when the love ran deep enough.

~~That was what his noona said so it must be true because she was never wrong, she could never be wrong.~~

It was pathetic of him to latch onto the first few people who had willingly entered his life just because he had always longed for companionship without truly _knowing_ them. And that thought watered the vines and thorns nestled in his lungs until they had overtaken every remotely positive feeling he had felt towards Cuifen, tainting them and turning them dark and twisted like the fortress of brambles in Sleeping Beauty.

He wasn't sure if he was merely jumping to conclusions with a barely coherent premonition from a cartoonish ghost of all things. But what was certain was that he couldn't ever see her again in the same light until he finally got the whole story out of her.

By the time dawn broke over the horizon, all of them looked like death warmed over, especially the pink-haired boy. The door to the Ramshackle Dorm was thrown open just as they dragged themselves out of bed.

"Good morning! How was yesterday’s sleepover? Did you experience youth fully by playing cards and-" Cater cut himself off upon getting close enough to see their exhaustion evident in their slouched shoulders and prominent eye bags. "Yikes, what happened to you, my cute juniors? You all look terrible."

"Thanks, senpai. You're doing wonders for my self-esteem," Ace said blandly, rubbing his bleary eyes.

"Heavens forbid your head grows bigger than it already is," Yuu murmured and received an affronted "hey!" from the ginger-haired boy.

Deuce stifled a yawn. "One of the ghosts went nuts and caused a huge ruckus. I almost thought someone was getting murdered..."

Jaemin scarcely held back a violent flinch when he heard that accursed word.

The ghost's tortured screams now tormented him, replaying themselves like a broken voice recorder in his head.

_**“RED! RED ON HER HANDS! IT'S ALWAYS THERE! THE STENCH OF DEATH. IT LINGERS. SHE REEKS OF IT!**_

_**DEATH FOLLOWS HER.”** _

Naturally, a ghost could sense what the living could not. Whatever it had seen in that woman was enough to drive it into such a wretched state. Imagine, a being who could no longer feel pain of any sort had succumbed to its mortal fears by the mere sight of a human. It would have been laughable if this wasn't real, if this wasn't actually happening and if this wasn't about Cuifen. 

He would love to give her the benefit of the doubt but no one could fake such anguish. Not even a spirit. If it had taken a glimpse at the very core of her being and all it saw was red painted over her in garish streaks, it spoke volumes of the person Cuifen was.

Even though she had always been a tad intimidating to him, she had never made him feel unsafe. She had been a constant by his side since they had arrived in this world, comforting him with her strength, steady voice and unwavering smiles.

Could she really be that good of an actress? Or was it Jaemin who was too gullible?

Not even his friends' presence throughout the night could calm the maelstrom of tumultuous emotions and damning thoughts in him. At this rate, they must have noticed how subdued he was—how could they not when he wasn't even bothered to hide it? Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, they gave him some space for the entire morning to sort out his thoughts and gather his bearings.

It wasn't hard to let himself be consumed by his turmoil since there was no outside party to fend it off for him. So he sank deeper and deeper with nothing to keep him afloat.

When the Unbirthday Party commenced and Cuifen showed up at the entrance of Heartslabyul, greeting Jaemin with pure, unadulterated happiness colouring her grin and voice an effervescent yellow, it damn near broke him. This woman was light and laughter given form and movement. How could she be capable of-

His doubts returned full-force, warring with his fears as he pasted on a brittle smile—one brutal truth away from fracturing. Words were rushing, scrambling, pushing to get out, but his mouth was a grave of unspoken words that would never leave his lips.

(He didn't want this dream to end yet.)

"Let's get going, shall we~?" A Cater copy in lab clothes exclaimed, his voice distracting Jaemin and momentarily giving him a reprieve. "Fenfen here already helped me out with the roses so we're all set for the party to start!"

The aforementioned girl clapped the copy on the back. "Lead the way, Cater-senpai."

Once the copies were dismissed and the real Cater was standing before them, he beckoned them to follow him with a crook of his finger. With relative ease, he navigated through the maze of rose hedges, taking sharp twists and turns that left the less experienced juniors disoriented. After a minute or two, they emerged in the tea garden; its lavishly extravagant set-up reminding Cuifen and Jaemin of a Mad Hatter's tea party.

Circular tables surrounded one long banquet table that stretched from one end of the garden to the other with pristine white tablecloths draped over them. Banners with the Heartslabyul insignia flew overhead in the autumn breeze that carried the scents of the honeysuckles and creeping vines adorning the lattices of the gates around the compound.

There were precariously stacked teacups embossed with gold, three-tiered trays laden with various pastries and candelabras with the candles lit and the wax melting on every table. China, porcelain, ceramic and silver overcrowded the area around the centrepiece of an elaborate bouquet of roses in a bottleneck vase with clematis flower motifs. The cluttered spaces left barely enough room for the Heartslabyul residents who were dressed in similar white attires and already seated.

Despite the peculiarity of it all, the decorations seemed to be meticulously arranged to contribute to their overarching theme and it was quite similar to finding order within chaos.

The blast of a bugle heralded the arrival of Riddle Rosehearts. In his full Heartslabyul regalia which was rather tacky in Jaemin's opinion, he sauntered in and seated himself at the head of the banquet table, poised and seemingly weightless despite his heavy cape.

"Make way for our leader, the Red Ruler: Prefect Riddle!"

"Three cheers for Prefect Riddle!" The residents cheered in sync as per rehearsal before quietening down.

Riddle made a pleased hum, finding the reception satisfactory. "Indeed. The roses are red and the tablecloths are white. Truly a perfect Unbirthday Party. The Dormouse is sleeping inside the teapot just as planned, correct?" 

Positioned behind Riddle's plush throne, Trey nodded—his trilby atop his head dipping along with the movement. "Of course. The jam to put on one’s nose is ready—should the need arise."

"Well done."

"Whoaaa, what’s with that get-up? He looks so cool!" Grim said.

Just then, Cuifen leaned over to him and Jaemin couldn't help but tense up. With a playful glint in her onyx eyes, she whispered conspiratorially to him, "I love Riddle and all but I've always thought he looked like a child playing dress-up in that outfit."

"Pft, I know right," Jaemin replied, hoping his voice didn't sound too tremulous.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice since the smile on her face remained as bright as ever.

"You seem to be in a good mood. How was it like rooming with Jamil?" Jaemin asked, hoping he was acting as naturally as possible.

Cuifen's eyes softened. "It was great. I managed to wake up early to see Jamil's sleeping face and he looks so soft and peaceful and wow, I am in love. And then he got kinda mad at me because I kept helping him with his chores but what the fuck, he even looks cute when he's mad."

A genuine laugh left Jaemin's lips as his heart swelled with a fondness for Cuifen before that feeling was quickly tamped down. "You are so whipped for him to the point where if he tells you to lock yourself in a freezer, you'll only ask 'how long' and nothing else."

This earned him a light punch to his arm from the girl who then admitted, "You're not wrong."

Their conversation was brought to an end by Cater ushering them into the garden.

"It’s totally fashionable and very ‘grammable~! ☆ I’m gonna go get changed, too," Cater said with a wave of his pen, transforming his clothes as well as the crew's into matching attire. "The Queen of Hearts states that a dress code is necessary for party days so I’ll coordinate your clothes for you as a special service for today~."

Deuce looked down at his attire in awe. "That's one hell of a magic spell, Cater-senpai!"

Beaming, Yuu fiddled with their rose boutonniere. "Fancy. I like it!"

"Oh come on, Cuifen still looks better than me in a dress suit," Ace whined, earning an amused eye-roll from the woman.

"Nyaha! I look so cool now!" Grim said smugly, smoothing out its red and black checkered bow.

"We look like a circus troupe," Jaemin said with a chortle, doing a little twirl on the spot.

"Don’t forget to offer him the tart, got it, Acey?" Cater said with a pointed look towards Ace before breaking into a grin. "Alright, off to the party!"

The third-year then ushered them to their seats on the same side of the banquet table and advised Ace to speak up when there was a lull in the conversation. After that, he rushed off to take his place beside Riddle with a "good luck~!" thrown over his shoulder.

"Let us toast before we proceed with the croquet match. Does anyone have their teacups already?" Riddle said in a sonorous voice, rising to his feet. He surveyed the sea of faces before him and continued once he saw that they were all holding up their cups. "Now then, a toast to a day with no birthdays. A toast to the Unbirthday Party!"

"Cheers!" The residents said in unison, sounding eerily robotic with how synchronised they were.

They settled down once more as the tea party kicked into a full rollicking swing. Idle chatter drifted here and there with the clinking of cups and cutlery joining in, underlying the lively atmosphere of the social gathering.

Unable to control himself, Jaemin snatched up several macarons in one go and stuffed his mouth with them. It had been a long time since he had indulged in these pricey delicacies.

After a minute or two of animated conversations, Cater leaned forward in his seat to mouth at them, "Go." He then jabbed his thumb in Riddle's direction.

Almost tripping over his own two feet in his haste, Ace took the mont blanc and traipsed towards the head of the table. After strengthening his resolve, he approached the dorm leader and braced himself for an incredibly awkward talk.

"Um, Prefect?" Ace called in a stilted voice, looking like he was about to be sent to the gallows.

Watching from their seat, Yuu facepalmed. "At least, smile a little..."

By way of preamble, Riddle said, "Oh, you're the first-year who stole my tart."

"I-I was thinking of apologizing for what I did, so I uh...I made a new batch of tarts." Ace held out the tray to Riddle with beads of sweat dotting his forehead. "I hope you like 'em."

"Hm?" Riddle's impassive face revealed none of his thoughts or emotions to the internally panicking Ace as he inspected the tart. "I’ll ask just to be sure, but what kind of tarts did you make?"

"Thank you for asking! It’s a marron tart made with lots of chestnuts!"

It was as though a switch had flipped. Riddle went from politely indifferent to absolutely livid. The shade of his face morphed from a healthy pink to a mottled red as he abruptly got to his feet, startling the closest residents who ceased chattering to give their dorm head their fullest attention.

"Marron tart, you say!? How atrocious!" Riddle yelled, slamming his hands against the tabletop and causing the items to rattle in place. "Rule #562 of the Queen of Hearts. ' _Refrain from bringing marron tarts for the Unbirthday Party.'_ This is a capital crime! What have you done!? You’ve wasted a perfect Unbirthday Party."

"Ah shit, here we go," Cuifen muttered, quickly draining her tea and finishing the dessert before she would inevitably be kicked out along with her friends.

Deuce spluttered. "R-Rule #562!?"

"Just how many rules are there!? Did he memorize all of them?" Yuu said in disbelief, their fork stopping halfway to their mouth.

"There are a total of 810 rules and I’ve memorized all of them. A small feat for a Dorm Head, I must say," Riddle said with a lofty harrumph, casting a disdainful look towards Ace and the tart.

"Small feat, my ass," Jaemin said under his breath. With his memory of a goldfish, he could barely remember what he ate the day before. It would take him a miracle to even memorize one hundred of those rules.

"Oh, man...this is bad. Did you know that, Trey?" Cater said, sotto voce.

"I’ve only managed to memorize until Rule #350. I completely let my guard down. Who’d have thought there would be rules regarding the tarts too," Trey whispered, looking crestfallen while massaging his temple with his hand.

"As Heartslabyul’s Prefect, I cannot simply turn a blind eye towards this appalling rule-breaking," Riddle said through gnashed teeth and Jaemin swore he saw sparks of flints flying from the crevice of his lips. "Get those marron tarts away from me at once! And get rid of this troublesome group as well!"

"Wait a sec! As if I’d listen to a ridiculous rule like that!" Ace spat, his lips twisting into a scowl.

With arms akimbo, Grim added its two cents. "He’s right! If you’re going to throw the tarts away then I’ll just eat them!"

"Isn't there a rule about not wasting food or not letting someone else's efforts go to waste?" Cuifen said coolly, centring her stance and crossing her arms, unwittingly making herself an imposing figure in the eye of everyone present. "This whole thing is fucking stupid. Is someone going to die just because we brought a marron tart to a tea party?"

Everyone let out a collective gasp and Jaemin would have lost his shit and start laughing if he didn't have a healthy sense of self-preservation.

"You-You!" Riddle began, his diminutive frame shaking with unbridled fury.

Jutting his chin out in defiance, Ace pinned Riddle with a mutinous look. "She's right. I have enough of these goddamn rules! They don't make any sense!"

"Stop, stop!" Cater intervened, hoping to defuse the verbal match before it could escalate. "You two shouldn't say things like this!" He then turned to Riddle with a feeble smile in an attempt to placate him. "Riddle, these guys are just some freshies who got accepted to the school. Give them a chance, 'kay?"

Ace steamrolled on. "Nah, I’m gonna say it. Only an idiot would listen to a rule about tarts. Don’t mess with me."

"I agree with Ace. Of course, I admit that breaking the rules is not a good thing, but...this is too much already," Deuce piped up, quieter and calmer but just as firm in his stand.

"How audacious of you to talk back to me. Listen well. Breaking a small rule will result in a big problem someday."

Cuifen scoffed; the sardonic smile playing on her lips merely accentuating the sharpness of her eyes boring straight into RIddle. "Sure, rules are meant to keep you safe. But some of them don't even hurt anyone when broken so ask yourself, what's the point of them?"

She didn't care about getting collared at all. Even without magic, she wasn't helpless. Far from it, actually.

"All the other guys, too! They’re just scared that they’re gonna get collars so they’re not saying anything, but I’m sure they’re thinking the same thing!" Ace retorted hotly.

The residents in their vicinity squeaked in alarm as they were somehow roped into this argument.

Riddle gave the neighbouring table a side glance. "Huh, is that so?"

"N-no, it’s not true, Prefect! We do all we can to follow what you say, Prefect!" One of them rushed to defend themself with others chiming in to do the same.

"No way!" Grim exclaimed incredulously, taken aback by their sheer cowardliness.

"None of you men here have any balls," Cuifen said with a harsh laugh as she rounded on the nearest students, glaring fiercely at them until they cowed and hung their heads in submission.

"Tch, lame," Ace said, scowl deepening.

"This system of punishment is going to backfire one day," Yuu said furiously. "You need to find a balance because you're going too far right now. Everyone is listening to you, not because they agree with you, but because they are scared shitless by you. This is the same as oppression!"

"Ever since the year I became the head, not one student from Heartslabyul has ever repeated a year nor was anyone expelled. And that’s counting all the dorms in this school. That means that I am the most exceptional and the strongest! That is why I am the only one who’s always right! There is nothing wrong with following what I say!"

Unable to listen to Riddle's deluded tirade any more, Jaemin primly got to his feet and snapped his fingers. The simple gesture caught his friends' attention and with a mirthless smile that did not reach his eyes, he said, "If we're not welcomed here, we should take our leave."

"JAEMIN!" All of his friends cried, except Cuifen.

"Be smart about this," Jaemin continued, his cold gaze cruising from his friends to Riddle. "We're only hurting our mouths by picking a fight with a stubborn asshole. We're not running away, you hear me? Rosehearts, you're going to have to rip it out of our throats if you want to hear a 'you're right, we're wrong' from us."

Hearing this, Trey and Cater gulped nervously.

Impressed, Cuifen nodded in agreement. "He's right. We're wasting our time so let's go and come up with a plan to fix this mess."

"He has a point," Deuce said with a weary sigh.

Of course, Riddle did not take kindly to that. "Do you think you can just get away with this!?"

At his wit's end, Cater frantically hollered, "Come on, guys. Just listen to Riddle and apologise to him!"

"Fuck that!" Ace bellowed, kicking back his chair and causing it to topple. "I’ve had enough playing along with this selfish tyrant!"

"What did you just say...?" Riddle's voice dropped into a deathly low register as his bangs cast a shadow over his eyes.

"You heard him!" Grim howled, shaking its paw at the redhead. "He said that you’re an irritable and selfish little tyrant who is unreasonable with trivial things like food! Like hell, I'm going to say sorry to someone like you!" To add salt to the wound, Grim stomped over to spit at Riddle's feet.

"H-Hey, you don't have to take things that far!" Deuce said, paling as his bravado chipped away a little.

"Oh, it isn't far enough, actually," Yuu deadpanned, passing Grim a macaron as a reward.

That alone drove the final nail into the coffin and the unravelling thread in Riddle stretched taut for the last time before snapping.

**_"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!"_ **

Deuce and Grim screamed in unison as collars materialised around their neck in a blink of an eye, locking shut with an air of finality. On the other hand, Jaemin let out a string of creative profanities as he tugged at the restrictive bind around his neck, discomfited by the tightness and the weight of it.

Surprisingly, Riddle spared Cuifen despite her being the most vocal about her displeasure with him after Ace. She could only chalk it up to her gender that made her the sole exception aside from Yuu. Yuu couldn't even perform magic so Riddle probably didn't find it necessary to collar them.

When Cater and Trey were brought in to forcibly remove them from the premises, Cuifen and Jaemin did not put up a fight or protest since they couldn't be bothered to, unlike their friends. They had tried to deliver their point across to Riddle but if that wasn't going to work, they had no choice but to commence with their original plans.

To trigger his Overblot.

Throughout their journey out of the rose labyrinth, Ace threw a hissy fit over his collar and the fact that Trey and Cater were completely unhelpful. Not only were they so subservient to Riddle—complying with his demands and his over-the-top behaviour—but they also refused to acknowledge how fucked up the situation was in their dorm.

Irony was truly Life's way of toying with them because the sky was a perfect robin-blue, the sun was a lemon drop on the canvas of sapphire and in general, the weather was perfect. It contrasted sharply with the stormy expressions on their visage and their overall mood. Deuce was still hung up on the "betrayal" by their seemingly dependable and easy-going seniors whom he had trusted to see reason and take their side whereas Grim was struggling to walk with a collar.

Since Grim's was considerably smaller than the humans, its centre of gravity was affected by the size of the collar. Hence, it was teetering back and forth on unsteady feet, trying to distribute the collar's weight evenly. Yuu had taken it upon themself to carry Grim around since mobility was going to be difficult for the piteous creature now that it was collared as well.

To sum it up, they were all at varying degrees of rage with Ace snagging the top spot.

Putting aside his baseless fears for a while, Jaemin moved to Cuifen's side to talk to her while the rest were occupied with ranting about Riddle.

"Do you think we will be able to use our elemental powers when the Overblot starts?" Jaemin whispered.

Cuifen bit her bottom lip, looking pensive. "We should be able to since it counts as an emergency. If we can't, we have to make do with the skills we have now. They should be more than enough."

Jaemin pursed his lips and nodded. "I think we should still practise controlling water and shadows. Like what happened in the mines, unpredictable things can happen. The future won't be the same as canon's storyline because-"

"Because us being here is already messing up canon's events," Cuifen finished his sentence for him, shutting her eyes with a pained grimace. "The risks are high."

"And we have to be ready to take those risks and the shit that comes with it," Jaemin said, uncharacteristically dour.

"Right."

"Did Riddle not collar you because you're a woman?" Jaemin asked, changing topics because the mood could get too depressing.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Lucky, considering you really went off on him. That's the first time I've seen you mad."

Cuifen's eyes narrowed. "I was only irritated back there. Trust me, you haven't seen me mad yet."

Jaemin gulped. Once again, he was reminded that he had possibly befriended the most terrifying woman he had ever known besides his mother.

An irate shout from Ace put a stop to their private conversation and they tuned back in to see Ace kicking up the soil and pebbles in a show of anger.

"Damnit, I'm so pissed off! That shortass red-headed menace!" Ace seethed, sending more dirt flying. "Does he plan on turning into the Queen of Hearts himself?!"

"Getting thrown out for disobeying the Prefect...there goes my dreams of becoming a model student," Deuce lamented.

"Look at Trey," Cuifen snapped, "being a model student means nothing if you can't stand up for yourself and others when the person in charge is clearly in the wrong. You're not an asshole, Deuce. Sure, you are a little dumb at times but you're not so bad in my opinion."

"Geez, that's one back-handed compliment," Deuce mumbled, cracking a smile.

"You're not wrong," Yuu told Cuifen, frowning to themself. "I still can't believe people let Riddle get away with this. He really rubs me the wrong way..."

"His fixation with rules can rub _anyone_ the wrong way," Jaemin said wryly.

Riddle wasn't Jaemin's second favourite character for nothing. As a viewer watching from the sidelines with a screen in between them, he could easily sympathise with Riddle, but actually being on the end of his unjustified anger and having to suffer the injustice that came along with his rules really did get his blood boiling.

"I didn't know NRC is accepting females, nya~." A pitchy voice joined the conversation, eliciting yelps from the unsuspecting first-years.

They whirled around to be faced with a floating head sporting choppy purple hair. Its most distinguishing features were the two pierced cat ears atop its head and its feline-like slit pupils. With a Cheshire grin, the head bobbed up and down as its upturned eyes locked onto their collars.

"Mrow, those collars are pretty stylish~."

"A FLOATING HEAD!?" Ace, Deuce and Grim shrieked in harmony, backing away.

It tittered. "Oh, oopsies~. I forgot to show ya my body."

In a blink of an eye, the rest of its body materialised out of thin air. A boy clad in a baggy white button-up sweater with his arms crossed behind his head and his lips stretched into a cat-ate-the-canary smile greeted them with a wink.

"I'm Alchemi Alchemivich Pinkaa," he spoke in a lilting cadence, "I got kitty magic, but also human magic. I’m sorta a weird guy, nya~."

"Yeah, he's definitely a weirdo," Grim said with a straight face.

Ace baulked. "Alche—Come again?"

"Ufufu, everyone calls me Che’nya. At the very least, I’m super different from those guys in there~," Che'nya simpered, holding up his curled hand like a cat would with its paw. "As I was saying, I don't recall Night Raven College turning into a co-ed institution~."

"I guess I'm the first exception for a female in a hundred years or so," Cuifen said flatly.

Ace ruffled the back of his hair with an irritated click of his tongue. "I’m in a bad mood ‘cause that little tyrant was being unreasonable. Go away."

"Riddle? A tyrant? Fufufu, well I guess there’s some truth in that~. That guy’s been a little stickler for the rules since he was little," Che'nya drawled, supporting his chin with his knuckles.

"Do you know anything about it?" Deuce asked.

"I guess you could say that I do, but then at the same time I can say that I don’t~."

"You're his childhood friend, aren't you?" Cuifen cut in, having no patience for anything that wasn't a straight answer. "You've implied that you've known him when you were young. Please tell us how and why Riddle ended up like that."

"Ohoho, you're a sharp one, missy," Che'nya said, his smile stretching like an elastic band. "Very well, I recommend you asking Glasses Guy. That guy has known Riddle since he was a kid. If I were you, I’d go ask him if I wanted to know more about Riddle~."

"Glasses...do you mean Trey-senpai?" Yuu asked.

"Who else wears glasses in this school other than Trey-senpai and Azul-senpai?" Jaemin deadpanned.

Che'nya let out a creepy little "ehehe" before wiggling his fingers at them. "I guess ya don’t need me anymore, so I’m going now. Bye~."

Before any of them could react, his body vanished as suddenly as it had appeared. The last trace of him was the ghost of a toothy smile hanging in the air for a split second before fading away like dust in the wind.

"That was a very weird dude, nya?" Grim then did a double-take. "Ah! I just sounded like him!"

"We can’t go to classes properly if we keep wearing these collars. Let’s go ask Clover-senpai about it. Plus..." Deuce trailed off, no doubt having flashbacks of the disastrous tea party.

Ace scowled. "I rather let Professor Crewel hit me than get on my knees to apologize to Riddle."

Jaemin smiled coyly. "Amen."

Deuce sighed. "Not the time, Jae."

"Sorry," said Jaemin, not sounding sorry at all much to his friends' chagrin

"Trey-senpai might return the recipe book to the library later this afternoon. We can go find him there," Cuifen proposed.

Ace smirked as he cracked his knuckles. "Good, we'll do a stake-out there all day if we have to."

* * *

Ace and Deuce decided to keep a look-out on the main entrance so Yuu and Grim took the side entrance on the West corner while Jaemin and Cuifen stationed themselves near the one on the East corner.

Now that they were finally separated from the main group, Jaemin seized the opportunity to interrogate her without any prying gazes and ears nearby. Taking her by the hand, he led her to a secluded corner of the library where an Ignihyde student was studying with headphones on and a Scarabia student was taking a nap on the desk.

Deeming the area safe enough to have a trainwreck of a conversation, Jaemin expelled a long puff of air, feeling the panic settle in and overwhelm him as Cuifen's probing stare grew too intense to bear. After steeling his resolve, he proceeded to tell her what the spirit had said about her, word for word, only stopping to catch his breath before continuing.

All the while, Cuifen listened with an inscrutable expression, making no move to interrupt him.

Once he was done with his recount, he fell silent and lowered his gaze, unable to meet her eyes.

A shaky exhale from Cuifen broke the fraught silence between them. With a muttered curse, she raked a hand through her hair; the haunted glimmer in her hooded eyes sent a shiver down the length of his spine and he involuntarily took a wobbly step back.

Cuifen jerked her head in the direction of the empty chairs. "You might want to sit down for this. It's a long story."

Once they were seated at the table nearest to the windows, Cuifen began speaking, "It was around...six years ago? When I was around twelve or thirteen-"

_'Oh, she's eighteen too? I thought she'd be older than me.'_

Now that he thought about it, no one ever questioned if Cuifen was actually sixteen. Then again, with first-years like Jack Howl looking like they were pumped full of steroids, they probably assumed Cuifen was one of the more physically developed teenagers.

"-and I was walking back home from school. It was late in the afternoon and it was winter then so it was already pretty dark." A crumpled copy of a smile made her way across her lips, tinged with bitterness and wry amusement. "And you know what they say..."

"Monsters come for little girls when night falls."


	10. Blood and Battle

> _WARNING: THERE'S A DETAILED NARRATION OF ATTEMPTED RAPE IN THIS CHAPTER. IF THAT CAN BE TRIGGERING FOR YOU, YOU SHOULD SKIP IT. IT STARTS FROM "[SIX YEARS AGO]" TO THE FIRST LINE BREAK YOU SEE._

_[SIX YEARS AGO]_

A lone figure walked the streets in the dark. Clad in three measly layers, the young girl pulled her coat around her tightly when the numbing cold permeated the fabric to seep through her skin and sink into her bones. Snow crunched beneath soles of leather boots as she plodded down the deserted streets, her breath escaping from her lips in tiny visible puffs.

With round guileless eyes that had yet to see the horrors of winter, the girl admired her snow-white surroundings, smiling as she did so. It was a land cloaked in ivory—the colour white itself became a landscape of fog-obscured skyscrapers and frozen roads. She could barely tell where the sky and the land parted. Snowflakes drifted from above, pirouetting in the air before landing on her flushed nose. They filled the creases of her coat and powdered her dark hair, thankfully melting upon contact since it would just look like she had a bad case of dandruff.

Humming an idle melody, the girl tottered into a frost-crusted alleyway that resembled a path leading into a winter wonderland. She had always gone down this alley every day for the past month on her way back home so she had never seen it in this enchanting state. Without any hesitation, she began her short trek through the narrow lane towards her home that was waiting on the other end.

The alley had always been empty for the past month so imagine her surprise when she saw a tall, spindly man dressed in loose black clothes leaning against the wall to her right. His face was gaunt and emaciated with the aftermaths of starvation and his hair hung in loose, greasy curls over a pair of shifty eyes. Upon spotting her, he gave her a grin—a menacing one that spelt danger.

Too frightened to move a muscle, the girl looked on in mute terror as the man lurched forward. Her wide-eyed gaze drifted down to the stranger's hand in which an empty glass of alcohol was held in a loose grip. When he dropped it, the bottom part of the bottle cracked and the microscopic green fragments of the broken glass scattered across the snow like pieces of emerald.

What would anyone's first instincts be if a shady-looking drunkard was standing in a dingy alley sizing them up like a predator would with its prey? Run, of course.

And that was what she did. Or at least _tried_ to.

With a short scream, she pivoted on her heels and meant to sprint off in the other direction when a hand seized her by her hair and _tugged_. Rough hands manhandled her onto her back and with a bestial strength, tore off her coat in one swift motion while pinning her down. Through teary eyes, the girl could only stare up at a leering face and misshapen blackened teeth as a deft hand snaked up her sweater and groped her breast.

The violating touch sparked something primitive within her, jolting her from her shock-induced stupor and into full consciousness. It was as though she had reached in and ripped out the tendrils of fear ensnaring her heart, allowing the more familiar emotion of roiling, all-encompassing anger to take its place. Once that switch had been flipped, all she could think about was the need to _hurt, hurt, hurt, HURT._ Screeching as loudly as possible to disorient him or catch a passerby's attention, she grabbed a fistful of snow in her hand and shoved her open palm into her assailant's mouth and eyes.

She dug her frost-bitten fingers into his sockets, feeling the unnerving squelch of flesh and muscles giving way under her fingertips as she blinded him. Her other hand came up to scratch his face before holding his head steady so that her nails could puncture his eyes. Warm, runny blood oozed out of ruptured tissues, gushed down her arms and dripped onto her, slow and steady like pulp, painting her with its garish hue. The lurid sanguine trails streaking down her forehead and cheeks, the feral glint in her dilated pupils and the savage grin threatening to split her face into half all coalesced into a haunting image.

A scratchy mirthless laugh scraped her throat raw when she let her fingers sink deeper into the squelching scarlet mess for eyes. This drew out more anguished howls from the man who tried to wrest his face out of her viscera-soaked fingers while his hands clawed at her wrists, her forearms and her neck. But she clung on with an inhuman strength she didn't know she possessed, relishing in the pain because it proved she was still alive and fighting. Still laughing hysterically, her chest heaved with the effort of releasing every demented sound that had been lying dormant in her like a millennia-old beast in slumber.

After rendering him sightless, she took the chance to scoot up so that she was no longer below him and tore her fingers out of his ruined sockets, wrenching another animalistic scream from him. Turning on her front, she crawled on her knees and hands towards the broken glass bottle as her vision narrowed down to that single item. She snatched it up just as the man who was blindly scrabbling on the ground to find her managed to catch her by the ankle.

With a rending war cry, she whirled around—her hair fanning out behind her like a raven taking flight—and swung the bottle in a wide arc to strike him across his bloodied face. It shattered into smithereens upon impact and without waiting for the man to recover from that incapacitating blow, she scrambled to reach for a larger shard that was about the size of her palm before lunging at the man. Upon tackling him to the ground, she straddled him and locked her legs around his waist and plunged the shard straight into his jugular vein.

His hips bucked wildly to throw her off and his blunt nails pierced into her sides yet she still held on using sheer willpower, eyes blazing with hell's fire and arms trembling like a leaf caught in a strong gale. She pushed it in _deeper and deeper and deeper_ until the man beneath her fell limp, his hands falling away and body stilling.

Red stained the snow under them and in her twisted mind, she compared it to strawberry puree drizzled over a bed of crushed ice.

Tilting her head up, she inhaled sharply, feeling the frigid air swell up her diaphragm before leaving her in one misty breath.

And on that dark winter night, all was quiet once more.

* * *

"What the fuck," was the first thing that came out of Jaemin's mouth once Cuifen finished her story.

Unfazed, Cuifen leaned back in her chair and folded her hands over her chest. "If you don't believe me, you can ask the ghost for details. If they can somehow find out I've killed a man, they probably know why I did it."

"No, I believe you," Jaemin said quickly and was awarded a sceptical look from the woman. "No, no, I _really_ do. I just can't believe I've never thought of that..."

"What? You didn't think I murdered someone out of self-defence?" Cuifen said, her brows crinkling into an incredulous frown and her lips pressing together to hold back the laugh bubbling in her throat. "Dude, did you think I'm part of the mafia or some shit and I went around killing people for the hell of it?"

Jaemin buried his face in his hands. "I'm a goddamn idiot."

"I'm not gonna deny that because I agree," Cuifen snorted, watching in amusement as the boy in front of her began slamming his forehead against the table. "Hey, hey, don't do that. You're killing the rest of your limited brain cells."

"This—this makes so much more sense!" Jaemin's head shot up to reveal a circular red spot on his forehead as he pushed his hair out of his eyes. "It's just that you look—well, ya know—hella strong so I've never expected that you would ever be taken advantage of like that-"

Cuifen's face darkened. "I was a little girl once. I've been weak and defenceless before."

"I know, I know," Jaemin wailed, sounding stricken as actual tears sprung to his eyes. "I'm really sorry, I mean it. Please slap me or I don't know, do anything you want to me. I deserve it for jumping to the wrong conclusions and thinking of you that way."

"Jesus, dude, calm down," Cuifen hissed, reaching over to cup his scrunched up face which was one of the telltale signs that he was about to burst into tears. "Look, I'm not mad at you and I'm sure as hell not going to hold this against you. I would have thought the same if I heard a ghost say some fucked up, ominous shit like that. We barely know each other's personality, much less our past, so it makes sense that you automatically assumed the worst."

"Really? You're not mad at me?" Jaemin sniffed as Cuifen let go of him and drew back.

Chuckling, the woman took out a wad of tissue from her pocket and gave it to him. The boy blinked back his tears before blowing his stuffy nose on a sheet of tissue, looking incredibly pitiful in Cuifen's eyes at that moment.

"I'm not."

"Oh," he said in a small voice, crumpling the tissue in his hand. "Thank you."

"It's nothing," Cuifen said quietly, growing uncomfortable as memories of that night resurfaced from the darkest recesses of her mind.

Jaemin nodded stiffly, sensing her discomfort. In an attempt to erase any lingering tension from her being forced to divulge such an ugly secret, he asked, "Is that why you started learning martial arts?"

He then winced upon realising that the topic still linked back to her past assault.

Surprisingly, Cuifen seemed more at ease when he brought up martial arts. "Yeah, I didn't want something like that to happen to me again so I trained my ass off to become stronger than men." A tempestuous storm brewed in her eyes as she clenched her fists. "I don't want to lose myself to another person like that."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Jaemin rasped, lowering his gaze. "Thank you for telling me this. It must be hard."

Cuifen did a half-shrug, her murky gunmetal eyes regaining some clarity. "I trust you're not the type to blab this to other people. And if we want to work together as partners, we have to get to know each other better."

The smile that Jaemim graced her was wan yet hopeful. "You're right."

It felt like he could understand her a little better now. He could only hope that after she had opened up to him with something so intimate and personal about her, they could bridge the remaining distance between them.

Out of the blue, a thought struck Cuifen and she gasped slightly. "Wait, the ghosts were fine around me on the first day of school. Why did they change their mind?"

Frowning, Jaemin mulled over this for a few seconds before speaking, "It was after the mine incident so maybe you controlling the shadows had to do with it. Did hearing the shadows 'speak' to you make you cross over to the other side or something? And somehow, the ghosts can look into your soul or whatever."

Cuifen stared at him for a long while before humming thoughtfully. "Maybe...it does sound like a plausible theory."

Jaemin worried at his bottom lip. "But it's just a theory and nothing else. Since we're in the library, we might as do some research on shadow magic. I doubt Crowley will be helpful."

"You got a point," Cuifen drawled, thinking back to all the moments in the gameplay when Crowley proved to be utterly useless as an adult figure.

Walking in a random direction, the duo began searching for the dark magic category in the extensive state-of-the-art library. And as a result, they forgot to regroup with the rest at the main entrance. Although they could just use magic to get the necessary books on higher shelves, the duo chose to do it the old-fashioned way by scaling the ladders all the way to the top of the floor-to-ceiling shelves, enjoying themselves immensely as they dared each other to climb higher and higher.

Once their growing stack of books was on the verge of surpassing Jaemin's height, they settled down at the table to begin their research. After an hour or so of them perusing books with promising titles in the East Wing, the rest of the gang came running up to them.

"Oi, don't tell me you guys forgot all about us!" Ace whisper-screamed and was promptly shushed by the librarian and his friends. "What? I'm using my inside voice!"

"You clearly don't understand the concept of inside voice," Deuce muttered to himself before shaking his head and getting back on track. "Nevermind, here's what you two missed."

They proceeded to update Jaemin and Cuifen about their plan and the two had to nod along and feign surprise when they reached the part where they decided to challenge Riddle to a duel for the dorm leader position.

"But Riddle can seal your magic in an instant. How are you going battle against him if you can't even use magic?" Jaemin said, pretending to be distressed.

Ace puffed up his cheeks, looking sullen. "Ugh, we'll think of something."

"You guys are just going to wing it, aren't ya?" Grim deadpanned and received guilty looks from the two boys in return.

"Too bad you're from another dorm, Cuifen," Yuu told the woman. "If you guys teamed up, you might actually stand a chance."

"Yeah, your shadow manipulation ability will really help us out big-time," Deuce said.

Ace nodded. "From what we've seen back at Dwarf's Mine, the shadows you controlled were strong enough to hold back that huge monster. If you go up against Riddle, you can restrain him before he can even say 'Off'."

Jaemin raised a brow. "We told you about the whole dimension-travelling business last night, didn't we? So you should already know that both Cuifen and I are still inexperienced when it comes to magic. Spell-casting comes to us naturally for some reason but other than that, we know nothing about our unique abilities. That's why we're doing some research."

Ace inclined his head to the side in bemusement, staring down at the mountain of books on their table. "I don't think you'll find what you're looking for in the library. All these books are about dark spells, curses and jinxes. Not about unique magic. What makes your ability stand out from the rest is that it is special and exclusively yours so it means there won't be an instruction guide written for you. You have to work out the limitations, the drawbacks and other details of your unique magic through test-runs and experiments. It's something you can't perfect with the help of a manual."

"Fan-fucking-tastic," Cuifen said, disgruntled, as she snapped a book shut. "So it's like a base instinct plus trial and error thing?"

"Yep."

"You're quite knowledgeable about this," Jaemin said, impressed.

Even Deuce, Grim and Yuu were looking at him with newfound admiration.

"My older brother explained to me this kind of stuff before," Ace said, shrugging his shoulders.

Deuce brought his fingers up to stroke his chin. "I think Jaemin will have more information to work with than Cuifen. Water-based magic is rather common so you might find something here but the ability to command shadows is leaning towards the arcane side. Do you know the specifics of your ability, Jae?"

"I managed to conjure a jet of water during orientation night when Grim accidentally set someone on fire," Jaemin said before mumbling to himself. "It might be similar to Kalim's unique magic 'Oasis Maker'. Maybe I can ask him for some tips..."

"Sorry, did you say something?" Yuu asked.

Jaemin's head snapped up to look at them. "Ah, no, it's nothing."

Frustrations mounting, Cuifen mussed up her hair with one hand while the other held her magic pen and returned the books to their original positions with a flick of her wrist. "Damn, I just wasted my time here then. My eyes are so damn tired."

A kitten-like yawn left Yuu's mouth then. "I think all of us here are tired as hell."

Grim grunted. "Grrr, that damned ghost. He spooked us all."

Cuifen and Jaemin traded a pointed look.

"We're free for the rest of the day so why don't we take a nap back at Ramshackle Dorm? There's no way we'll be accepted at Heartslabyul currently," Deuce suggested.

"Tch, looks like we'll sleeping over again. Hopefully, that ghost doesn't act up tonight or I might resurrect him just to kill him myself," Ace said, cracking his knuckles.

"I'll take a nap there too," Cuifen said, intending to seek out the ghosts and hopefully get some answers out of them while she was there. "But I'll return to Scarabia tonight. I have to help Jamil complete his chores."

"Have to or want to?" Jaemin sniggered.

Yuu's eyes narrowed into slits. "Speaking of Jamil-senpai, I heard that you sleep in the same room as him."

"Wait, seriously? I thought I heard wrong or something when Kalim-senpai..." Deuce trailed off, swivelling around to face Cuifen. "Is that even...allowed?"

"What's the worst that can happen?" Grim asked, genuinely puzzled by their concern.

Ace cleared his throat. "Well, if a boy and a girl-"

"You guys worry too much. Jamil isn't going to try anything on me," Cuifen scoffed, interrupting the auburn-haired male before he could sully Grim's ears and mind.

"Yeah, it's most likely the other way around," Jaemin said drolly, earning exasperated as well as repulsed looks from everyone else.

Yuu rubbed circles into their temples. "It doesn't matter who—who's trying what on who. Just use protection if anything happens."

Ace and Grim pulled a face, not wanting to imagine their friends getting up to anything in the privacy of their dorm. Deuce looked more flustered than Cuifen herself at the mere implications of what could happen behind closed doors while Jaemin just looked thoroughly humoured by the entire situation.

Cuifen facepalmed. "I've literally only held hands with him."

"So you're admitting you _do_ want to do more than hand-holding with him," Ace said dryly.

"Duh, this horny bitch here isn't even subtle about checking out Jamil-senpai's ass," Jaemin said, slinging his hand around Cuifen and patting her on the shoulder. "Why do you think she only walks out of the room after Jamil?"

Yuu threw up their hands and clutched their head in despair. "Dear Lord."

"I hate to watch him go but I love to watch him leave," Cuifen said with a wistful sigh.

Deuce's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. "I-I don't know what's worse—Cuifen ogling Jamil-senpai or Jaemin noticing all the times Cuifen was ogling Jamil-senpai."

"Same," Ace whispered, greatly disturbed.

"Eek, Cuifen is a pervert!!" Grim shouted in alarm.

Their schoolmates nearby who had heard the monster's embarrassingly loud remark turned to them with different expressions ranging from annoyance to bewilderment.

"Erm, you guys heard nothing," Yuu said awkwardly, waving them off before returning their attention to Cuifen. "You need Jesus, Fenfen."

"What are you talking about? I'm the most innocent cinnamon roll you'll ever meet," she said with a flutter of her lashes, clasping her hands together.

Yuu's brows flew up into their fringe; Grim snorted inelegantly; Ace fake-retched while Deuce shut his eyes, looking pained by the sight of her. 

"And I'm the second coming of Virgin Mary," Jaemin said, sarcasm coating his syllables.

Cuifen let loose an infectious cackle that coaxed similarly raucous laughs from her friends. To no one's surprise or sympathy, that particular group of first-years were kicked out of the library afterwards.

* * *

As expected, the ghosts of Ramshackle Dorm were nowhere to be seen no matter how long Cuifen looked for them while the others showered. After fifteen minutes or so, she gave up half-way through searching the attic but kept a look-out for any flicker of white rounding corners or phasing through floorboards.

After showering and changing into a hoodie and sweatpants, she joined her friends at the table for lunch. Jaemin had prepared a huge pot of fried rice with chicken for them and they all dug in enthusiastically, missing the taste of homecooked food. Though the bags replicated the flavours of food perfectly, real food still tasted better than enchanted food so Yuu and Jaemin developed the habit of stocking up the fridge with ingredients instead of relying on their bags to give them ready-made meals.

Once they were all done eating, the entire group headed to the lounge area for a much-needed nap. The lounge area had turned into an extra-large bedroom at this point since almost everyone in their clique was sleeping over at Ramshackle Dorm every day. For a few minutes, they chatted about schoolwork and Yuu, Jaemin and Cuifen's worlds before they drifted off to sleep one by one.

Ace was the first to succumb to his exhaustion so, by the time Cuifen was willing herself to fall asleep, he had already latched onto her like a koala to a eucalyptus tree and was snoring away like an engine. Aside from Deuce, their friend group was either very open to giving each other physical affection or was okay with receiving it.

Cuifen particularly liked that about her friends because she was a tactile person too.

They slept for around four hours and woke up when the afterglow of the sunset illuminated the room in a glaringly golden light. Deciding not to change out of her reasonably presentable attire, Cuifen made her way back to Scarabia after bidding her friends goodbye, hoping to reach there in time for dinner.

The spices added to the various Middle-Eastern dishes really suited her palate and she wouldn't miss Jamil's cooking for the world. Mealtimes at Scarabia also tended to be a lively affair since everyone could mingle about while music played in the background and Kalim's unreserved and sociable nature as the Prefect of the dorm brought the residents closer together regardless of their year.

Luckily, she arrived for dinner on the dot and was escorted to her seat beside Jamil. It was an open secret that Jamil and Cuifen had grown close enough to constantly be in each other's company so their dormmates unanimously left that spot empty for her. Cuifen appreciated the gesture but not the knowing looks and suggestive smirks from them. They could be a little intrusive at times but they meant well since they were just as delighted as Kalim that their stoic, taciturn vice dorm leader was letting loose around her since it meant they could get away with things more often too.

After dining together with her dormmates, Cuifen retreated to her shared bedroom with Jamil. With the prospect of what was about to come tomorrow looming over her head, she decided to brush up on defensive spells and magical barriers to protect herself and her friends if worst came to worst. She might be able to have a less fitful rest if she prepared herself as much as possible for the future conflict in this short frame of time.

She pored through some of the books she had ended up checking out of the library while Jamil finished up his homework at his desk. It seemed like the second-years had twice as much workload as their juniors and Cuifen wasn't sure if she would be able to keep up with the packed schedule next year when it was her turn to suffer the same tedious classwork.

Later on, when they were both ready for bed, Jamil broke the companionable silence between them.

With a slight crease between his brows that denoted his concern, he asked, "Is something the matter? You're studying defensive spells that are not in your syllabus yet."

Cuifen probably shouldn't be surprised that someone as perceptive and gimlet-eyed as Jamil had taken notice of her reading material but she was anyway. He had seemed entirely absorbed in his work so she had assumed he had blocked out the world around him as well. It still baffled her that no one in canon ever questioned why someone as studious as Jamil was only getting average grades. Not even Jamil's supposed best friend Kalim who had known him his entire life.

"Ace and Deuce are duelling Riddle tomorrow for the dorm head position and I want to help them in any way I can, even if I'm from another dorm," Cuifen confessed, stifling a yawn.

She had taken a four-hour-long nap this afternoon but after her intensive reading session, she was tired out again.

Wanting to see Jamil in his soft and sleepy state, she crossed the room in a few lazy strides to sit on his mattress. He was already nestled into his sheets with his slanted eyes at half-mast and his loose hair spread out on his pillow, surrounding his head like a halo. When his mattress dipped with her weight, he rolled over onto his side to face her with his hands tucked to his chest. Humming a lullaby she had picked up when she was younger, Cuifen grabbed the thickest blanket that was slipping down his chest and pulled it up slightly so that it was covering his neck.

Scarabia was located in the middle of the desert and deserts could drop below sub-zero temperature sometimes. So it was important to stay warm under layers of blankets, especially during the fall season.

She was utilising the time they could spend in private to be as close to him as possible. But of course, she watched out for any signs of discomfort before initiating physical affection, not wanting to make any unwanted advances towards the boy. If she pushed too much, he would just withdraw into his shell since canon already proved that although he craved attention and validation, he had hidden his grievances and languished in Kalim's shadows his whole life that he no longer knew how to react to positive affirmations from anyone.

Jamil blinked owlishly as he shifted in his four-poster bed. "Wow, that's...that's awfully bold of them."

Cuifen grunted in agreement, smoothing out the wrinkled corners of the sheets. "Trust me, none of us is expecting them to win but it's pretty much our best bet to knock some sense into Riddle. He's taking things way too far."

"Well, I do agree with you on that," Jamil murmured, thanking her quietly when she finished adjusting his blanket for her. "Being challenged head-on by a bunch of first-years is bound to rattle him."

"Yeah, he won't be expecting that, that's for sure."

Their conversation petered off as Cuifen resumed humming the same tune. Jamil was content to just listen to her—his breathing growing shallow and his eyes sliding close.

When he felt her rising from his bed to leave him to sleep, he forced himself awake again and made an incoherent sound that embarrassingly resembled a despondent whine.

"Yes?" Cuifen said and he could hear the laugh in her low velveteen voice. "What is it, Jamil?" 

Looking unsure of himself, the brunet licked his chapped lips, drawing Cuifen's gaze to his pink tongue dragging along the seams of his lips. "What if Kalim and I accompany you to Heartslabyul tomorrow?"

"What for?" Cuifen asked, leaning over him slightly to get a closer look at his expression. There was a smidgen of conflict in his slate grey eyes which darted about nervously as he seemed to ponder over some things in his head.

Again, as proven in canon, Jamil was a phenomenal actor who could easily mask his emotions with a blank slate. She wasn't sure if she was just getting her hopes up but if Jamil really was giving her access to his inner thoughts and emotions, she was going to take it as progress on her part.

"One, I am interested in seeing Riddle defeat Ace and Deuce as much as I'm on their side," Jamil said with a throaty chuckle. "Two, if anything goes wrong, you have some extra hands on deck to sort things out. That's what you're worried about, isn't it? Something going wrong, that is."

Jamil really just read her like an open book, didn't he?

Cuifen sent him a grateful smile, accepting his offer without contemplating if it was a good idea or not to drag them into the potential shitfest known as Riddle's Overblot. "You got me there. I think we will all feel more assured if you and Kalim are there with us so thank you."

"It's no problem," Jamil said before a note of uncertainty crept into his tone. "We...we're friends, aren't we?"

It took a moment for his tentatively spoken words to sink in and when it did, a smile bloomed on Cuifen's lips and her heartbeat picked up its pace drastically. She ignored the cliché sensation of butterflies flying amok in her stomach and looked down at him with fondness visible in her softened gaze.

"Yeah, definitely."


	11. Crimson and Control

"It's time to wake up, Cuifen. The duel is going to start soon."

With a soundless groan, Cuifen opened her bleary eyes and took a second to make out the pretty face gazing down at her before sitting up. She wasn't a morning person but since Jamil was the one waking her up, she definitely was more eager to get up and start the day immediately.

"Good morning," she rasped, threading her fingers through her tousled hair. It was already nine according to the digital clock on Jamil's bed stand so that meant she had to skip her morning workout routine for today.

The brunet was already dressed for the day. His hair had been tied into the usual elaborate cornrow braids with the scarlet band affixed around the low-hanging ponytail; his eyes had been lined with dark sienna kohl with a sleek wing at the ends and his lids had been painted a champagne gold hue that complemented his earthy skin tones. In his trademark black-and-red hoodie and acid-washed jeans, he looked straight out of a Hot Topic store.

Jamil graced her with a small smile and damn, she could get used to seeing this the first thing in the morning every day. "Good morning, I brought up a glass of milk for you. That's all you have for breakfast, right?"

Following Jamil's gaze, Cuifen looked to her bedside table to find the aforementioned drink. "Yeah, that's all. Thank you. You didn't have to do this for me."

"I wanted to," Jamil said and just as the words left his lips, his placid expression shifted into one of surprise that mirrored Cuifen's expression.

It seemed like even he himself didn't expect to say that willingly.

Ignoring the fact that her heart skipped a beat or two, Cuifen pulled herself out of bed to down the glass of milk. Since she didn't know how else to respond to his statement, the woman simply smiled at him and tugged on the strings of his hoodie to tighten the hood around his face, squishing his cheeks and making him look like an egg. A very adorable and angry egg.

"Cuifen!" Jamil yelled, blushing furiously as the woman cackled and escaped into the bathroom with her tote bag.

Having a private bathroom connected to their bedroom was one of the many privileges of being one of the dorm leaders. Cuifen certainly appreciated that bonus since the mere thought of having to use the communal bathroom with boys sent chills down her spine.

When she stepped out after five minutes, she had already freshened herself up and was clad in a sports bralette, leggings and a denim jacket. Since Riddle was bound to launch all sorts of attacks during his Overblot, she had prioritised mobility when picking her clothes so that she could run faster and dodge more swiftly.

"Is Kalim ready?" asked Cuifen as she pulled her hair back into a sloppy ponytail.

Jamil nodded as he fluffed her pillow, having tidied up both of their beds. "Yes, he should be downstairs by now. He was already up and about when I went to wake him earlier on. He must be excited to watch the duel..."

"Great, let's get going then."

"Ah, wait a second." Jamil walked over to her with his magical pen in hand and a questioning look on his face. "May I braid your hair? We obviously don't have the time for a lesson on how to braid right now so I'll just style your hair for you today."

Cuifen's eyes widened a fraction. She remembered requesting him to teach her how to braid on the night they first met but she had assumed he was just humouring her then. Well, clearly he wasn't because he had taken her seriously. In response, she nodded in emphatic agreement, earning herself a slight but visible quirk of the lips from Jamil. 

She jerked in place when she felt her hairband coming loose under the effects of the spell he had just cast. With an intense look of concentration on his countenance, he waved his pen over her head to charm her hair into parting in the middle and weaving themselves into two Dutch braids.

Once the rubber band snapped into place, she took her phone to check her reflection in the phone camera and was impressed by what she saw. Not a single hair was out of place and that boded well for her since she hated it when longer strands flew into her eyes while she was running.

By the time they made it downstairs to meet up with Kalim, the boy had already scarfed down his breakfast and was practically vibrating on the spot with barely concealed eagerness. His ornate gold earrings jangled tunefully when he swivelled around to gesticulate at them to hurry up.

"Let's go, let's go! We're gonna be late if we don't hurry."

Finding his enthusiasm infectious, Cuifen laughed and picked up her pace as the Scarabia trio stepped into the mirror portal. Throughout their journey, Kalim pulled them along by linking his arms with theirs and with Jamil and Cuifen flanking him, he crossed the Mirror Chamber to the Heartslabyul mirror on the other side.

Word must have spread about Ace and Deuce challenging Riddle since there was already a sizable number of Heartslabyul residents milling about at the entrance of the botanical garden. Riddle, Trey and Cater were still nowhere to be seen but the rest of their friend group was already waiting for them on the opposing side of the Heartslabyul residents.

"Good morning, guys," Yuu greeted, injecting cheer into their voice though judging by the stress lines etched into their forehead, they clearly did not find this morning to be a good one. "You're just on time."

"Oh, almost all of you have your magic sealed!" Kalim exclaimed upon spotting the distinctive heart-shaped collars clamped around the boys' necks.

"We may or may not have pissed off Riddle yesterday," Jaemin said sheepishly.

"I guess Yuu didn't get collared because they don't have magic in the first place but Cuifen..." Kalim trailed off, scratching the back of his head as he turned to the woman.

Jamil heaved a sigh. "It's most likely that it didn't settle right with Riddle to strip a woman of her defences in a school full of boys so he made her an exception too."

"I can understand where he's coming from," said Deuce.

Everyone jolted to attention when Crowley and Riddle, along with the other seniors, entered the arena with their usual theatrical flair and pomp. Bugles were sounded, the crowd was parting, their mantles were billowing and their faces were set in solemn expressions.

Cuifen placed her hands on Ace and Deuce's shoulders. "Welp, good luck, boys."

"Yeah, you're gonna need loads of it," Yuu said mildly.

"Prefect's blunt side is showing again," Grim pointed out, curling itself around Yuu's neck.

Ace sent them a half-hearted glare. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"That's what friends are for," Jaemin chirped, pointing finger guns at the Heartslabyul duo. "To give you a reality check."

"If you guys get hurt, my family can take care of the medical bills," Kalim said with the utmost sincerity.

"And if you wind up dead after this duel, his family might as well cover the funeral expenses too," Jamil added, covertly amused.

"We'll take pictures so that we can pass on your legacy," Cuifen said with faux solemnity, raising her phone.

"Why are you guys like this?" Ace sighed.

"I can't even get mad at Kalim-senpai when he said it so earnestly," Deuce said, his voice coming out muffled through his fingers covering his face.

Crowley cleared his throat to draw their attention back to him. Now then, I shall be watching over the duel that will be taking place in the Heartslabyul Dormitory. The challengers are Ace Trappola and Deuce Spade. The one who accepted the challenge is the current Prefect Riddle Rosehearts. Now then, please remove the collars that are impeding their abilities."

In a flash, Riddle magicked the two boys' collars off and they breathed a collective sigh of relief once their handicaps were gone. For the time being.

"The damn thing’s finally off," Ace huffed, unclipping his magical pen from his breast pocket.

Deuce rubbed his neck, jaws set and eyes hardened. "And let's make sure it stays off."

"No worries, it will be back on you in a little while so I’d say you best enjoy it while you can," Riddle said with a condescending snort. "I almost doubted it when I heard that you had challenged me to a duel. Are you really serious?"

Ace scoffed. "Of course."

"We will never challenge you as a joke," Deuce said firmly.

Riddle's eyes were utterly devoid of emotions as he regarded them with a haughty tilt of his chin. "Hmph, never mind. Let’s get started quickly."

"Riddle, what should we do about our afternoon tea?" Cater chimed in, holding up his phone and flashing the time displayed on the screen. "It's already past 3:30."

"Yah, learn to read the mood, jerk," Jaemin muttered darkly to himself, looking askance at the orange-haired boy.

Riddle placed a hand on his hips. "Do you think I’ll be late for anything in my life? I’m pretty sure this will be over quickly. Afternoon tea always has to be at exactly 4 PM." He then addressed the challengers directly. "As you can see, I don’t have enough time. Taking you on one by one will be time-consuming so you can fight against me together."

"You can do it, Prefect! Please settle it quickly!" The residents cheered simultaneously.

"Ugh, that's so creepy," Grim commented, its nose twitching in distaste.

"Headmaster, please begin at once," Riddle said, somehow sounding respectful and lordly at the same time while talking to a superior.

Crowley unfastened a handheld mirror hanging on his belt. "The moment this mirror falls to the ground is the signal to start."

Silence reigned in the atmosphere during the calm before the storm. Jaemin could physically feel his skin breaking out into goosebumps as he gazed at the light reflecting off the oval surface of the mirror. When the shattering of glass and an announcement resonated in the clearing, the highly anticipated duel commenced.

"Ready...fight!"

* * *

As expected, the duel lasted approximately five seconds.

"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!"

The first few spells died on Ace and Deuce's lips as the roar threw them off their game and collars sprung into existence around their throats again. With manic energy formed out of their desperation, they tried to pry the collars open though they both knew it was a fruitless endeavour.

Riddle, on the other hand, did not even break a sweat after casting that spell. His crown was not askew, his clothes were not rumpled, his composure remained intact and he looked as stately as ever.

Jaemin's heart sank at the piteous sight of his friends struggling yet failing and at the contrast between them and Riddle.

Remnants of the redhead's potent magic permeated the air with phosphene-like sparks, knocking back the frontmost audience a few paces with the sheer force of the shockwave that came with the attack. Acting on ingrained instincts, Jamil pushed Kalim behind him in case there were more damaging after-effects of the spell.

"It went by so fast, I didn't even see what happened," Yuu said weakly, reeling back.

From the safety of the sidelines, Crowley provided commentary on the duel. "One's magic strength comes from the strength of the imagination. The stronger he imagines the results of his magic will be, the more successful it will turn out." The man clapped his hand in applause. "Little Rosehearts here has shown how much he has polished his magical skills."

"The gap between them is just too large!" Grim lamented, nuzzling its nose into the crook of Yuu's neck to hide from the dust and tangible magic particles lingering in the air. "How are they going to surpass Riddle ability-wise like this?"

"Damn, just by looking at them..." Cuifen's words tapered off as a fresh wave of anger borne out of second-hand helplessness choked her. "It's pathetic."

"This is bad," Kalim said quietly, subdued.

"That didn’t even take _five_ seconds. I’m surprised that you went and challenged me with your skill level. Aren’t you embarrassed?" Riddle goaded, bangs hanging low over his eyes. "I knew it. Anyone who breaks the rules will always amount to nothing. It is as Mother said. She is right."

A look of unadulterated pain suffused his face as the truth he was forced to live by all these years re-doubled its iron-clad grip on him. The manacles around his wrists and ankles and the chains linked to them made their presence known with their asphyxiating tightness and crippling weight.

"It's true that rules should be upheld. But strictly implementing every single nitpicky rule that doesn't benefit anyone whatsoever is called oppression!" Deuce yelled indignantly.

Riddle gathered himself once more, closing up the fissures in his mask. "Huh? There is a punishment for rules that are broken. And in Heartslabyul, I embody those rules. That's why those who break the rules have no right to complain to me!"

"We understand that you wish for your residents to shape up and become better versions of themselves by obeying the rules of your dorm," Jamil began in a calm deferential voice that did wonders to assuage Cuifen's rising stress levels. "But what they're trying to tell you is that some of those rules are too absurd and being punished for forgetting them or breaking them is too unreasonable."

The dark-skinned male's reasoning did nothing to pacify Riddle, however.

Riddle bristled. "This has nothing to do with Scarabia so if you know your place, stay out of it, Viper!"

Upon hearing Riddle, Jamil bowed his head in submission. Literally.

"If Ace isn't going to punch that tomato-looking midget any time soon, I'll do it," Cuifen said darkly, cracking her knuckles.

Screw the fact that Riddle was in top five for her favourite TWST characters. He did the one thing that upset Jamil the most and that was using this world's structured power hierarchy to order him around as if he was a slave to all.

"Headmaster, this is getting serious," Jaemin said with a grimace, sensing Cuifen's rising urge to resort to physical violence; Jamil's sudden dispiritedness and everyone else's uncontrollable anger.

Crowley's sigh came out as an inaudible puff of air. "Let them sort this out themselves first. There's no need for adult intervention yet."

Jaemin gawped up at him with a mixture of incredulity and intense disapproval. _'So you're only going to do something when someone finally snaps and actually kills someone!? Christ, he's useless!"_

"YOU'RE WRONG!" Yuu bellowed at Riddle, jarring Grim and all those around them. "YOU'RE 100% WRONG!"

The conviction in Yuu's voice was the kerosene to the flames stirring alive in Riddle, stoking and fanning them until they morphed into a blazing inferno that would reduce everything in its path to ashes once it was unleashed.

"No one will follow lenient rules! What sort of lessons were you given that you can’t even understand something so simple as this?" Riddle matched Yuu's ferocity toe to toe, his impassive visage contorting into a grotesque irate expression with teeth bared, eye twitching, cheeks mottled red and the whole lot. "You were born from parents who can’t even use magic. I’m sure that you didn’t receive any good education before you stepped foot in this school. And yet, you're here trying to defy me when you're in no position to do so. My, my, you're rather thick-skinned, aren't you?"

Yuu didn't look fazed by his jab at their ordinary upbringing. But everyone else who was close to them grew enraged on the behalf of Yuu who was insulted straight to their face.

"Hey! Take that back, Riddle!" Kalim hollered, the muscle in his jaws working. All traces of his happy-go-lucky disposition had disappeared, only to be replaced by righteous fury. He was already worming his way out of Jamil's vice-like hold, close to storming up to Riddle and decking him himself. "That was uncalled for!"

"You fucking-!" Deuce said through gritted teeth, his whole frame shivering with barely repressed rage.

That was the trigger for Ace to lose his slipping control on his emotions.

_"THAT'S IT, YOU BASTARD."_

With that, he landed a solid punch on Riddle's cheek, sending him stumbling back and falling on his rump in an ungainly heap of velvet and satin. His tiny crown clanked as it hit the ground, bouncing once or twice before rolling to a stop at Yuu's feet.

Ace had put a stop to their vicious verbal exchange with that unprecedented attack but that impulsive move was going to stir up a different kind of fight very soon.

Gasps and cries rippled through the crowd of onlookers, overlapping with Trey and Cater's worried calls of Riddle's name. Everyone had their gazes trained on Ace whose chest was heaving from the adrenaline rush kicking in.

"That's more like it," Cuifen said, wolf-whistling much to Crowley and Jamil's horror given how inappropriate it was in a situation like this.

"Riddle deserves it," Yuu said with vindictive satisfaction.

Kalim sucked in a breath. "That gotta hurt."

"Good job, Ace! Ya got 'im right in the face with a pretty clean right-hook," Grim cheered after getting over its initial surprise.

"I'm starting to regret coming here," Jamil said as he tugged Kalim back once more, feeling a migraine building up between his brows. If things began escalating, he would have to force Kalim to leave the premises with him lest he ended up being caught in the crossfire.

Jaemin inhaled deeply, preparing for the shit-storm that was undoubtedly headed their way.

"Mister Trappola!" Crowley shouted but his voice was overpowered by Ace's louder, stentorian yell.

"I don't care about you or this fucking duel anymore!"

"Did you...did you just punch me?" Riddle whispered as he clutched the tender spot on his face, looking incredibly child-like and vulnerable at that moment with his round eyes and diminutive figure cloaked in his oversized grass-stained cape.

It must have been shocking for the residents to watch their unflappable, dignified leader being bested in an unexpected, almost barbaric manner.

Ace launched into a tirade immediately, fuelled by his accumulating resentment towards Riddle. "Kids aren’t their parents' trophies. Your parents aren't the ones who get to decide what you're worth. I finally understand that you being a trashy person isn't your mom or dad’s fault at all! You've been in this school for a year. And the one to blame is the bastard you call a friend who did nothing but turn a blind eye to your selfishness!"

Trey flinched and Riddle's impervious mask crumbled into a devastated expression; it was one that spoke volumes of the acute pain that came with having his pride spat upon. The reactions he was evoking did nothing to deter Ace. Unrepentant, he continued spewing words that pierced into the redhead like a thousand sharp blades aimed for his weak spots.

"And I understand that your mom raised you the way she did, but is ' _Mama this, Mama that'_ all you can say!? Are you not capable of thinking for yourself!? To hell with that _'Red Ruler'_ bullshit! You're just a baby who happens to be gifted with magic!"

Crowley had long been stunned into silence as the chaos of events unfolded one after the other so he did not even know where to begin with telling Ace off for violating the duel's commandments and mistreating his dorm leader.

"Amen to that," Yuu said, impressed.

"Great Seven, Ace is on a roll," Kalim breathed. "Should we stop him?"

Grim reached over to pat the albino's cheek comfortingly. "It's okay, he's just saying what everyone thinks."

Jaemin could not say he did not approve of Ace's ruthless approach to making Riddle see the truth. However, considering Riddle's fragile mental state, he kind of wished Ace would pull back with his punches. It was necessary but brutal nonetheless.

As the tension in the arena ratcheted up a notch, Cuifen couldn't help but give herself a harsh slap on the forehead for dragging her Scarabia mates into this mess. They weren't even supposed to be so involved in the storyline this early on but she had fucked up and caused it to happen regardless. The instant Riddle entered the final stage of Overblot and transformed into an abomination, she was going to get Jamil and Kalim to safety.

After processing Ace's lengthy rant, Riddle began shaking all over on the ground, unable to pick himself up. "Baby, you say...? Me!? You know nothing and yet...you don’t know anything about me and yet-!"

"Yeah, I don’t. I don’t know a damn thing! Do you think I’d know anything with that holier-than-thou attitude of yours? Don’t be stupid."

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP! QUIET! Mother is right! That’s why _I_ am also right!!" Riddle's tremulous voice crescendoed into a banshee-like shriek. The redness of the growing welt on his cheek matched the colour crawling up his neck. "DON'T YOU DARE TALK LIKE YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH."

"Isn't Ace antagonising him too much?" Kalim said, biting his bottom lip so hard he drew blood. "I get that Riddle has to hear this but it's one thing to scold him because you want him to improve and another to do it just because you're mad at him."

"You're right but you heard Riddle. He insulted Yuu and if he can dish it out, he should be able to take it too," Deuce said without an ounce of mercy.

"Riddle's unstable," Jamil observed, his charcoal grey eyes narrowing. "This isn't a normal temper tantrum."

His reign had been questioned, his seat of power had been threatened, his beliefs had been scorned and his morals had been shaken. Ace might as well have uprooted and erased Riddle's entire existence because he was tearing down everything that made Riddle; that turned the boy into who he was today; that anchored him to the harsh reality he lived.

The worldview which his life revolved around like how the earth needed to orbit around the sun had shattered. Just like that.

After being dealt such a crushing blow, Riddle was currently bordering on insanity and was about to tip over no matter how much he tried to regain his senses. It was akin to a futile attempt in pulling himself up and over the ravine with a fraying rope—its threads snapping off one by one with every heated remark thrown at him.

The tension in the line of his shoulders, the wild darting of his eyes, the spasm wracking his muscles—it all pointed to the same conclusion. He was being backed into a corner and like any cornered animal, he was bound to lash out.

Trey and Crowley tried to get Riddle to calm down but to no avail. He seemed to have lost himself to his turmoil, clenching and unclenching his fists as he drew in sharp intakes of air that rattled in his throat.

Someone chimed in. "The newbie is right! I'm also sick of this! The dorm head is too damn uptight; how are we supposed to continue living like this!?"

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS ANYMORE!" Someone else shrieked, teetering between distraught and outraged.

Consequently, Ace's ravings had rallied other residents to speak up about their displeasure and they all joined in on dragging Riddle's reputation through the mud. One particularly bold resident even hurled an egg at Riddle and it cracked against his already injured cheek, the gooey yolk and egg white marking his face like a brand of shame.

A fraught silence befell them, adding weight to the tension blanketing the area.

"One of the students..." Trey's eyes widened comically into the size of saucers as he looked around the garden for a guilty face amongst the sea of people. "He threw an egg at-"

Cuifen and Jaemin mentally prepped themselves, knowing that they had eventually reached the turning point of the arc as well as Riddle's breaking point. They took out their pens and inched closer to their friends, ready to grab them and flee at a moment's notice.

The growl that Riddle released warped his voice into a guttural, animalistic noise. "Who did it!? Who threw this egg at me!?"

"This isn't safe. If the other residents start rioting, you'll get caught up in it too," Jamil hissed to Kalim.

"They won't riot!" Kalim protested, pulling his arm free. "Look at them, they're all afraid of him."

True to Kalim's words, no one responded to Riddle. This appeared to be the final push that sent Riddle over the edge and it meant there would be no return for him. They had gone too far.

His descent to madness was slow and gradual. Molten hot lava had been bubbling in the crater of a volcano and was rising, rising, rising until it made it to the top. Overflowing and spilling just as the inevitable eruption occurred. And once it did, there was no stopping the viscous lava from leaving destruction in its wake.

A harsh, derisive laugh that scraped his throat raw left his lips. "You’ve had enough? I’m the one who’s had enough! No matter how much I warned you, no matter how strict I’ve gotten, you all keep breaking the rules! Every single one of you...you’re all just imbeciles who think about yourselves! Very well. If no one will admit it, then I’ll have you all take responsibility! _ALL OF YOU OUGHT TO BE BEHEADED!"_

"Kalim, we have to get out of here. Now," Jamil said, a note of urgency underlying his monotonously delivered statement as he seized a dumbfounded Kalim to drag him away but it was too late.

With the broken twisted smile of a madman, Riddle cast his signature spell on a large scale.

**_"OFF WITH YOUR HEAD."_ **

And all hell broke loose.


	12. Overblot: The Crimson Tyrant Part One

The magnitude of Riddle’s magic-sealing spell was great enough to cover the entire hundred-metre radius of the botanical garden, sparing no one except the headmaster, Trey and Cater. Chaos descended upon the surrounding onlookers as circular magic runes manifested into existence above their heads. The circles took on the form of the feared heart-shaped collars once they closed in around the residents’ necks, clamping shut with an air of finality.

Feeling the stiff leather crushing her windpipe, Cuifen let out a choked sound and clawed at the restricting item to give herself some relief from its vice-like grip. There was something so dehumanising and crude about being collared like a misbehaving pet that filled her with white-hot fury and burning shame in equal measure. It ignited a primal pathway in her mind that screamed at her to regain control; to hurt whoever reduced her to this sorry state; to emerge as the victor, the stronger opponent in this fucked up game of survival.

Warning bells tolled in her head and the faint sound of blood pulsed in her ears, drowning out the white noise of people shrieking and heavy footsteps thudding against the grass. Overwhelmed by the cacophony, her cognitive functions shut down one by one until she was left standing rooted to the spot with her face frozen in a rictus of terror. It happened whenever her senses were sent into overdrive yet she could never grow used to the numbness that replaced her tumultuous emotions and the sudden emptiness in her head. Everything was too quiet, too loud, too little, too much all at once.

“Cuifen, Cuifen, honey, snap out of it. You’re scaring me, okay? Come on, we gotta move, Fenfen.” A familiar tenor voice pierced through the haze in her mind and cleared her headspace of the maelstrom of half-formed, fragmented thoughts. “Fucking hell, I don’t want to sound corny but I need you with me right now. We need you with us so snap out of it and return to your cool, ass-kicking self please.”

A pair of hands grabbed her own trembling ones and with detached bewilderment, she realised that a full-body tremor had wracked her entire frame and she was staring vacantly at a random patch of grass. Jerkily, she lifted her head and met widened cognac-brown eyes harbouring pure unadulterated fear and that raw emotion struck a chord in her, jolting out of her daze as her mania retreated into the pits it had crawled out of like a receding tide. Recognising the blanched face as Jaemin, Cuifen shook her head vigorously as if to shake off the remnants of hysteria lingering in her system and the stranglehold around her heart let up a little.

“Okay, shit, yeah, I’m sorry,” Cuifen said breathlessly, drawing herself to her full height and squaring her shoulders. “I’m good now.”

A shaky exhale left Jaemin’s lips as the fear in his eyes dissipated and shifted into concern. “You sure you’re alright?”

“Yeah, minor breakdown. ‘S normal.” Cuifen rolled out a crick in her shoulder as the corner of her lips arced into a smirk dripping with venom. “Now, where were we?”

The mirthful twinkle in Jaemin’s eyes brought life back to his ashen face. “We were gonna kick Overblot Riddle’s ass.”

“Let’s get to it then.”

Thankfully, Cuifen’s minor slip from reality and their exchange were over just as Ace had finished antagonising Riddle one last time by refusing to take back his insults and name-calling. Trey, Cater and Crowley were occupied with mitigating the out-of-hand situation; Yuu and Grim were panicking off to the side; Deuce looked ready to hit Ace for provoking Riddle, and Jamil was desperately trying to get an obstinate Kalim to leave the premises.

“TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW.” Riddle’s annoyingly pitchy and grating voice pierced their eardrums. “DO YOU WANT TO BE RUN THROUGH!?”

“Run through!?” Kalim yelped.

Ace fixed his dorm leader with a mutinous look. “Hell no. I’m never taking it back.”

Deuce cursed. “Goddamnit, Ace.”

“Are you trying to get us killed, you moron?” Jamil yelled.

The near-inhuman shriek tore out of Riddle like a great shard of glass and shook the earth and heavens.

“This is getting really bad! You guys need to get out of here!” Cater said, his carefree disposition shrivelling up into a terror-stricken expression as he gesticulated frantically at them to get a move on.

An ominous rumble from deep in the belly of the earth nearly threw them off their feet, striking fear into them with its unmistakable intensity. Trying their best to keep their balance, they lowered themselves to the ground to be closer to their centre of gravity. Riddle’s destructive magic had distorted the very air around them, instilling a feeling of wrongness in them. His magic was morphing into a perversion of its intended nature and was crawling across their clammy skin like a pest they could not shake off. It was an unbearable sensation that invoked Cuifen’s irrational urge to scratch her skin until it ripped and bled.

Riddle sent another wave of magic through the clearing and their surroundings warped, leaving afterimages that disoriented the onlookers. It was like someone had pinched the fabric of the cosmos between their fingers and _pulled,_ causing the universe to crease and crinkle like folded cloth. Jaemin had to shut his eyes since his overworked brain could no longer perceive the unnatural images.

The visuals in the gameplay during Riddle’s Overblot had given off dark, sinister vibes but now that Jaemin was actually stuck in this world, he could see with his own two eyes how Riddle’s magic had corrupted their surroundings like ink bleeding into clean parchment paper. The air reeked of ink varnishes and overturned dirt, invading their noses and leaving behind a rancid taste in their mouth. Dust clouds hung above them like a mast, blocking out most of the sunlight and casting a great shadow over the once well-maintained garden. With the floating rose trees; uprooted bushes; newly formed ravines in the ground, and sepia-hued air, the place truly looked like wonderland gone wrong.

A Twisted Wonderland.

“This magic-” Jamil breathed, unconsciously inching closer to Cuifen while pulling Kalim along with him. “It’s _wrong,_ it’s-”

“He’s making the trees float,” Kalim squeaked, adjusting his turban out of his eyes to take in the Armageddon-like sight.

“Riddle couldn't be serious about-” Grim began nervously, only to be cut off by the rose trees tipping over into a horizontal position and careening through the air with their thorny boughs aimed towards Ace.

“Rose Trees, tear that man’s body to shreds,” Riddle commanded with a flourish of his magic pen.

“OH MY GOD, HE WAS SERIOUS ABOUT IT!” Grim squalled, holding onto Yuu as they threw themselves out of harm’s way. Thanks to the momentum, Yuu ended up barrel-rolling straight through a hedge lining the outer walls of the maze and disappeared into the foliage.

“He is gonna be skewered like a shish kebab!” Deuce cried, ducking behind a bush with Jaemin and the Scarabia duo.

Crowley screamed incoherently at them as he joined his three students behind the bush, cupping his gloved hands over his ears. Kalim patted his headmaster on the shoulder comfortingly while babbling prayers of his own. Jamil shot Crowley an unimpressed look, mentally questioning why the only adult in the vicinity was hiding with them instead of taking charge of the situation or at least attempting to subdue the rampaging dorm head.

“Headmaster, why are you hiding with us!?” Jaemin voiced out what Jamil had been thinking with his forehead puckered into a frown.

“Ah, well, it’s not safe for me to be out in the open like that so I’m just taking cover like the sensible person I am,” Crowley said anxiously as he loosened his tie, earning a baleful glare from the pink-haired boy.

“More like the useless coward you are,” Jaemin said exasperatedly, ignoring the weak affronted “hey” from the older man.

“Keep it down before Riddle-senpai finds us!” Deuce hissed at them, too rattled by their dire circumstances to even be bothered by Kalim latching onto him for comfort when he was normally allergic to physical touches from anyone.

“Thanks for that visual image, dude!” Cuifen hollered at Deuce after hearing his earlier comment as she sprinted towards Ace.

She tackled the auburn-haired boy to the side just as two projectiles whizzed past their head and crashed into the ground a few scant inches away from them. Tumbling into a pile, the branches of the trees snapped off and the trunks splintered into chips and strips of wood. The carnage was left sitting in the middle of the garden like a centrepiece.

The rest of the trees, however, were enchanted into harmless intangible card suits that flashed in neons and luminescent white. In a heartbeat, the light-show of shimmering cards suits disappeared to reveal a harried-looking Trey caked in dirt but luckily unharmed. Detecting the lull in the battle, Cater also made his presence known as he wiggled out of his hiding spot under the tea table to goggle at the scene laid out before him in horror, bug-eyed and open-mouthed.

“T-This is-” Riddle stuttered, his eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. Shaken, he watched his magic being overwritten by Trey’s Doodle Suit as the rose trees and collars vanished.

“The rose trees turned into cards!” Yuu gasped, sticking their head out of the bottom of the hedge and lying on their front with Grim by their side.

Cuifen craned her neck to look at Yuu. “Yuu, stay there with Grim until this is over.”

Once she received a firm nod from Yuu, she turned back to Ace who was currently under her with his head cushioned by her hand. Assessing his state quickly, she found that the boy did not look worse for wear aside from the graze on his cheek and his too-rapid breathing.

“This is the second time you saved my ass,” Ace wheezed, winded after having his breath literally knocked out of him.

Cuifen got up, unpinning Ace from the spot and pulling him to his feet before racing to the bushes together. “And I have a feeling it won’t be the last since you clearly have a death wish.”

Meanwhile, Trey was attempting to reason with Riddle once more but the latter was too deeply disquieted by his overwritten magic to even register the other’s words. Nothing Trey was saying to him made an iota of difference when he was too far gone.

The frightened whispers of the remaining residents who had huddled together did nothing to help Riddle return to his senses, exacerbating his mental state instead. They were all condemning him and his extreme ways, too frightened to overthrow their ruler themselves but daring enough to spit insults right in his face.

“Our collars are gone!” Deuce exclaimed and brought his hand to his throat; his realisation slightly delayed.

"It must be Trey-senpai's Doodle Suit!" said Kalim.

“Good, we can use our magic to defend ourselves now.” Jaemin exhaled heavily, experimenting with his magic pen and perking up when a spark flew from the diamond. “Let’s come up with a plan to take down Riddle before shit gets worse.”

“Riddle is obviously targeting Ace out of all of us so if we use him as a distraction, we can take the opportunity to escape,” Jamil said in his most level voice, keeping his features schooled to conceal his rising panic.

“Jamil! We’ll be risking Ace’s safety if we do that,” Kalim said, looking horrified.

“Well, _our_ safety is at risk because Ace doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut,” Jamil retorted. “And need I remind you that as your servant, I’m obligated to keep you safe no matter what!? If anything happens to the heir, I’ll-”

“Stop bringing up the fact that I’m the Asim heir all the time.” Kalim thumped his fist against the grass in a show of frustration as he shot Jamil an imploring look. “It isn’t important right now-”

Having endured the pressure of the high-risk situation for a long while, it was inevitable that Jamil lost his rein on his emotions. His composure shattered and before he could tamp down the surge of helpless fury in him, the words that had always been lying dormant on the tip of his tongue erupted and burst out of him like the unstoppable flow of lava.

“What do you mean this isn’t important!?” His sudden rise in volume drew flinches from the people around him. “I’m your servant and you’re my master and even if I don’t say this, it’s an unchangeable fact! I’M SUPPOSED TO PRIORITISE YOUR LIFE OVER MINE AND EVERYONE ELSE’S HERE.”

“Jamil,” Jaemin said in a strained voice, chock-full with emotions.

Deuce and Crowley cleared their throats and awkwardly looked away in tandem to give them some semblance of privacy. If they were not currently stuck in this predicament, Jaemin would have rolled his eyes and muttered something about men and their fear of emotional vulnerability.

After listening to Jamil shoving the truth right in his face, Kalim’s face crumbled into a devastated expression and before he could say anything, Ace and Cuifen came tumbling into a pile before them. They separated hurriedly, looking a little bruised and battered but thankfully whole and intact with no missing limbs. Given the current state of affairs, that was good enough for Jaemin.

Having picked up Jamil’s distressed outburst from afar, Cuifen turned to Kalim with an entire raging sea churning and roiling in her dark pits for eyes. They bore into the albino with unnerving intensity, rendering him temporarily speechless by how small he felt pinned beneath the weight of her gimlet-eyed gaze.

“Kalim, I know you mean well but this isn’t the time to be stubborn,” she spoke, low and gravelly; the steel in her tone was almost palpable. “If you stay here, Jamil will stay with you and if he ends up getting hurt because of that, I won’t forgive you or myself. So get out of here. _Now_.”

A deathly hush followed her statement as everyone gaped at the woman.

“Cuifen, you…” Jamil’s words petered away, his voice coming out soft, hoarse and underdeveloped as though the strong solid parts of it couldn't make it through the thready web of unknown emotions stretched across the inside of his throat.

Cuifen turned to him and met his gaze head-on, her breathing coming out ragged. Something crackled in the space between them, contributing to the tension stretching taut in the air like an elastic band.

 _‘Guys, please, this is the battlefield, not the bedroom,’_ Jaemin thought, eyes flitting from Jamil to Cuifen and back to Jamil repeatedly as if he was watching a tennis match. _‘Don’t do this now.’_

However, before any of them could react accordingly, a gut-wrenching scream rippled through the area. Everyone popped their heads out of the bushes like meerkats to check on the ongoing crisis. In the eye of the storm stood Riddle; his face had contorted into a pained, heart-rending look that spoke volumes of his silent suffocation under his mother’s despotic care and clusters of midnight-black sparks swirled in an intricate dance around his figure.

Crowley gasped dramatically, recognising the unmistakable signs of Overblot. “You mustn’t, Rosehearts! If you continue using your magic, your magic jewel will become tainted with blot!”

His warning fell on deaf ears. Riddle gnashed his teeth and buried his face in his hand, slipping further into his self-made abyss of trauma and misplaced anger. With his breath rattling in his chest and animosity rolling off of him in putrid waves, he uncovered one glowing red eye.

**_“I’M THE ONLY ONE WHO’S RIGHT.”_ **

“RIDDLE!”

Trey’s scream echoed in the clearing as an efflux of Riddle’s tainted magic shattered the blotted leaking ruby at the end of his pen. From the scintillating shards came a torrent of runny tar-like ink that spiralled into an impenetrable sphere around Riddle, engulfing him whole. A tempestuous wind accompanied his transformation as a great heady rush of magic swept across the clearing, toppling over tables, trees and humans alike.

The sphere dissolved into dollops of ink, revealing Overblot Riddle in all his demented glory. Jaemin could appreciate the complexity of the outfit but it just reminded him of what a goth Barbie doll figure would wear, considering the corset; fishnets; earl’s crown; ball-gown skirt and knee-length boots with heels that were higher than Jaemin’s IQ. Then again, it was not his place to act like a wannabe fashionista judging others’ Overblot fashion.

Ink coursed through the fabric of Riddle’s artfully ripped gown, framing it like latticework and seeping into his skin like a blight. The blazing anger in Riddle’s eyes had died, leaving behind a glassy emptiness that was too uncharacteristic of the ever-so expressive boy.

“Did he just do a Magical Girl transformation!?” Yuu yelled, propping themselves up on their forearms.

Riddle’s silver eyes were now saturated with an unearthly shade of red as he cast his blank gaze over them, levitating in the air like a suspended marionette. A mirthless diabolic laugh spilt from black-tinted lips, layered and rough with sheer power. “Fools who dare revolt against me shall not be tolerated in my domain. I am my world’s absolute ruler. My world itself submits to me!”

“Cue villain monologue,” Jaemin said, going unheard in the mayhem.

“Ah, how could this happen!? How could I let a student go into Overblot while I’m here!?” Crowley wailed, slapping his hands over his cheeks.

Deuce and Jaemin deadpanned at him, finding it hard to correlate Crowley’s antics with his age in times like this.

“That guy’s turned completely evil now, look!” Grim pointed a paw at Riddle, safely ensconced in Yuu’s interlocked arms. “What is going on!?”

“Think about defying me and it’s _OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!”_ Riddle said with a shrill cackle, spreading his arms outwards in a haunting image reminiscent of Jesus on the crucifix.

“Headmaster, you said something about Overblot. What’s that?” Kamil questioned frantically, shielding his eyes as dust began rising from the ground.

“Overblot is the one situation that all magicians should avoid. Right now, he has been enveloped by so much negative energy that he’s lost control over his emotions and magic,” Crowley said without any inflexion, sounding like he was mechanically reciting a textbook word for word.

“I don’t get it,” Deuce said.

Kalim made a face. “I don’t either.”

“That was the most simplified explanation of Overblot I’ve ever heard. How can you not get it?” Jamil snapped.

“Maybe they don’t get it ‘cause it’s too condensed,” Cuifen mollified, rubbing soothing circles into the brunet’s back.

“Ah, geez! In other words, it’s like an evil villain berserker mode!” Cater chimed in, eliciting violent flinches and gasps from the rest who had failed to notice his presence. Mud and bits of grass smeared his once pristine white attire after army-crawling from the table all the way to the bushes where the main pack was.

“When the hell did you get here?” Ace asked, going ignored by the others since there were more pressing matters to address.

“So he can kill someone in this mode?” Kalim said with worry written all over his face.

“He’s endangering himself and others! We need to do something!” Trey shouted from the other end of the garden, unknowingly answering their question.

“Headmaster, evacuate the students. Jamil, Kalim, go. I’ll cover you. Boys, we attack at once, got it?” Cuifen said authoritatively, taking charge and compelling the rest to listen.

“Got it!” Jaemin, Ace and Deuce chorused with matching determined looks.

“Wait, what?” Crowley spluttered, flummoxed.

Cater’s jaws dropped. “ATTACK!?”

“Stay safe, you guys!” Kalim said, looking pained but resolute as he finally allowed Jamil to tighten his grip on his wrist and drag him away.

“GO!” Cuifen yelled and they all leapt into the throes of battle.


	13. Overblot: The Crimson Tyrant Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was such a bitch to write im just so done with heartslabyul arc lmao

Dodging shrapnel and dirt columns, the quartet left their temporary refuge and headed towards a better vantage point where they could fire spells at Riddle and take shelter at the same time. There were rows of upturned trees and intact sections of the chainlink fences they could duck behind while covering the distance between them and Riddle slowly but surely.

It was a bare-bones plan they had agreed on in a matter of seconds that did not guarantee their success or their safety. But in their defence, they were making do with whatever they had at hand.

"Ace, Deuce, buy us some time. Distract Riddle as much as possible. Jaemin, you're with me. Trey-senpai, overwrite any counter-attacks," Cuifen hollered to the rest as they grouped up in the middle of the clearing with Trey.

From the corner of her eyes, Cuifen could see Crowley shepherding the residents and the Scarabia duo through the opening of the maze. Jamil was jostling through the stampede with Kalim in tow, lips set in a grim line and charcoal grey eyes darting around wildly for any errant spells. When he caught her eye, he mouthed good luck to her and she nodded in acknowledgement, mustering a wan smile for him.

Feeling more at ease after Jamil was led away to safer grounds, she directed her attention to Yuu who was still hiding in the hedge. Their expression was one of abject horror as they looked on as Grim scampered across the grass to join them. Before Cuifen could order the monster to return to Yuu, it had already come to a stop at her feet and was staring up at her mulishly; its cyan flames flaring to life around its twitching ears.

"There's no way you're leaving me out of all the action," Grim huffed, stomping its foot. "I want in on this too, yanno!"

Knowing that the unruly creature would ignore her instructions to stay put regardless, she relented begrudgingly. "Fine, your fire is flashy enough. Light his dress on fire or something to distract him."

"Are you really serious about this?" Trey shouted over the din of distant screams and Riddle's strident voice.

"Of course we are! We gotta incapacitate him one way or another before it gets worse," Deuce said with conviction, his breathing coming out shallow and rapid from the adrenaline spike.

Cuifen cast a cursory gaze towards the redhead. He should be wrapping up in—give or take—a minute so they had better come to a consensus by the time he realised no one was listening to his grand monologue.

"What are you guys even up to!?" Cater skidded to a stop beside the bespectacled man, hair in disarray and makeup smeared. "You're going up against Riddle in his bloodthirsty mode when you couldn't even take him on in his normal mode? There's no way you can win!"

Ace jerked away in shock before side-eyeing him. "You gotta stop popping out of nowhere like that, Cater-senpai."

"We got a plan and it involves no one dying, that's good enough," Jaemin said drolly.

Cater's eye twitched rapidly. "No, it's not!"

Grim rounded on the third-year seniors, hackles raising. "That guy will be in danger if we leave him like that. Besides, it's getting lame losing challenges after challenges!"

"Exactly. And I still haven't heard him say 'it's all my fault, I'm sorry' to me and I'm not letting either of us die before that happens," Ace said with a click of his tongue.

" _Enough_. We're wasting time chit-chatting," Cuifen snapped as she nailed them with a quelling look. "Cater-senpai, if you're gonna make yourself useful, please back up Trey-senpai and deal with the backlash."

"I–I...ah damnit, I get it already! There’s really no other way, huh," Cater said with a quaver in his voice, already breaking out in cold sweat as he studied the imposing figure of Riddle in trepidation. "I'm in!"

Trey nodded firmly. "Got it, I'll help out as much as I can." And in a softer voice, he added, "I can't lose him yet, I still have so much to tell him."

Another haunting laugh pealed out like a gunshot in the lull of their discussion, earning their rapt attention. With lips torqued into a derisive sneer, Riddle swept a languid hand under his chin and lifted his ebony sceptre in the other. The open hostility marring his face was a jarring juxtaposition with his delicate features and it merely reminded Jaemin of how young and misled the boy behind that dark overlord masquerade was.

"Every single one of you here is getting ahead of yourselves." And that was the only warning they received before he launched a series of magic-sealing curses. _"OFF WITH YOUR HEADS."_

Using it as a cue, they shot off in different directions, readying their magic pens as the current of mana streaked towards them. With an incantation, Trey nullified the curse with his magic, transfiguring them into flower petals. The shower of pastels drifted past them harmlessly, carrying a mild fragrance with them that was soon overpowered by the heavy musk of dirt and ink contaminating the air around them.

Cater multiplied himself into five or six copies and all of them cast the same binding spell on Riddle just as Deuce conjured three cauldrons in quick succession. Even with the vice-like restraints coiling around him like a python and ensnaring him, Riddle managed to bat away the cauldrons with a wind-based spell, sending them flying towards the hedges.

Seeing one headed their way, Yuu let loose a shriek and scrambled to their feet. They flung themself forward just as it landed right where they were a second ago, leaving a dent in the ground. Having escaped death by the skin of their teeth, Yuu crumpled to their knees with a choked "holy shit".

Positioned behind a splintered trunk of a fallen rose tree, Jaemin squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fingers around his pen. It did not settle right with him to leave Yuu out in the open—defenceless and vulnerable to attacks—so it was up to him to come up with a solution. Desperate to tap into the unknown magic he had wielded days ago, he drowned out every other sound and narrowed his focus down to the matching pulse of his heart and his mana.

Darkness closed in. Instead of looking or listening, he _felt_ for the distinct flow of mana, finding it nestled in his core as a small but unwavering fire in a furnace. Like a beacon, it drew in his consciousness and like a moth drawn to a flame, he followed the trail straight to the buried treasure.

When his eyes flew open and he returned to the waking world, his hands were cupped around a dainty snowflake sigil. His erratic burst of magic left a silver coat of frost crawling up the lines of his palms, resembling rivers coursing through gorges. An icy gust of air infused with mana escaped through his lips, blowing the feather-light seal off his palm and towards Yuu.

It coasted through the battlefield and slowed to a stop in front of Yuu, twirling once or twice in mid-air before expanding outwards with a resounding crack akin to the frozen surface of a pond breaking beneath pressure. The snowflake's stellar dendrites branched into vein-like networks of ice, locking and intertwining into a translucent glacial dome over Yuu.

Just before the dome thickened into an opaque impregnable shield, Jaemin caught a glimpse of Yuu's expression—it was one of unconcealed awe and rapture. Knowing he was capable of creating such wonders, a grin bloomed across Jaemin's lips and he redirected his concentration into the battle, spurred by his newfound confidence.

Tucking his pen inside his pocket, he threw himself back into the pandemonium. Up ahead, Ace and Grim had pooled their efforts into creating a flame-lipped tornado. The two opposing elements left blazing ruins in their wake, fighting for dominance but ultimately fuelling each other as the eddying force of nature hurtled in Riddle's direction. The redhead stilled in the middle of a jinx, seemingly freezing up in the face of the inferno. It proceeded to envelop him, obscuring his figure from the onlookers.

A hysterical Deuce seized Ace by the collars and shook him back and forth. "DID YOU JUST KILL OUR DORM HEAD!?"

Somewhere to his far-right, Trey let out a heart-rending scream.

For a split second, Jaemin feared that it truly was Riddle's end since he would undoubtedly be shredded into pieces inside that vortex but his magic proved to be indomitable. One moment, the tornado was still wreaking havoc on the garden and the next, it diffused into smouldering embers and sulphur-laced wind to reveal a completely unscathed Riddle literally rising from the ashes.

Their surroundings further cleared, allowing them to see the monstrous animation of the Queen of Hearts looming over Riddle, leeching off his rage and feeding itself with the taint surrounding him. Instead of a neck and head, a heart-shaped phial of ink sat attached to the black-and-red bodice; the phial was screwed shut with a gilded crown stopper but it did nothing to stop the flow of ink oozing out of the crack in the glass.

The appearance of the abomination set off a chain of events. Cuifen dropped to her knees as the dim buzzing in her head that had been bothering her since she had separated from the others amplified into sharp crackling static. Groaning in agony, the woman scrabbled forward with her hands digging into the dirt—desperate to find some kind of purchase and tether herself to reality. Unknowingly, she was gravitating towards the ink rivulets on the ground below Riddle's suspended figure, succumbing to the magnetic pull of the shadows reaching out to her from the other realm.

They filled her head with senseless whispers, parasitic and invasive, burrowing into her through her eyes, nose and throat; anchoring themselves at the core of her being. Each indiscernible syllable melded and separated like clockwork, piecing together into a word and scrambling themselves up again into an unfamiliar language spoken by an eldritch tongue. Before she could pitch forward into oblivion, a voice spoke in full clarity, standing out amid the sibilant hisses and nonsensical ravings.

**_"I'M RIGHT. I'M ALWAYS RIGHT."_ **

"Riddle?" Cuifen said faintly, still clutching her head.

The surrounding air seemed to have dropped a few degrees and she nearly gasped aloud at the sickening cold sensation that washed over her. It was hard to put it into words but it felt as if something dark and convoluted was brewing in her, poisonous and necrotic. For a horrifying moment, she nearly gave in to the desire to reach inside of her and carve out the taint on her soul with her bare hands before lucidity returned.

**_"HOW CAN I BE WRONG? MOTHER. MOTHER TELL ME. MOTHER TELL ME HOW—"_ **

"Shut up, it hurts," Cuifen sobbed, her words tapering into a whimper.

She could almost taste it—the churning anger; the bitter resentment; the overwhelming sense of loss and hopelessness; the senseless fear clawing its way down her throat and snaking around her heart like a creeping vine; every destructive emotion that made up the ugly twisted side of humans painted her insides with acid. She felt it all. She felt too much. And now, she wanted to feel nothing.

_**"TELL ME. TELL ME. TELL ME. TELL ME. TELL ME. TELL ME—"** _

"SHUT UP!" Cuifen roared, bashing her head against the ground and splitting her recently healed scar open. The searing pain blossoming across her temple reeled her back to reality, chasing away the darkness eating away at her from the inside-out.

Panting, she slowly got to her feet unsteadily before the others discovered that she was missing for a suspiciously long time. She needed to find Jaemin and inform him of this phenomenon; there was a theory niggling at the back of her mind and she needed his judgement to confirm it.

She raced back to the main group, finding that they had fallen back after depleting most of their mana during the fight. Cater was down to controlling two copies from his initial six; Trey could only overwrite the magic-sealing spells and nothing more while the first-years struggled to combat the more critical curses.

"Rule number one," Riddle began in a deathly low whisper that somehow reached their ears as he ascended higher into the sky. " _Never underestimate me_."

"I don't know if I'm happy or disappointed that our magic didn't work at all," Grim squeaked, clinging to Ace's calf.

"Be happy 'cause I'd have personally killed you myself if you had killed Riddle!" One of the Caters said shrilly.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" Another Cater copy screeched as he gesticulated frantically at the entity that had latched onto Riddle.

Deuce gasped, back-pedalling and accidentally treading on Grim's paw. "That—that monster. We saw something like that back in the Dwarfs' Mine!"

"Its head...its a flask full of ink. Could it be the same ink blotting Riddle's crystal?" Ace mused, gimlet eyes flashing with recognition.

Red with exertion, Trey doubled over and breathed heavily through his mouth. "I have never seen anything like this."

"Sweet baby Buddha." Jaemin stumbled back, floored by the sheer impressiveness of Riddle's magical prowess. "You can mark me down as scared and horny."

"Not the time, Jae." Cuifen made her presence known as she grabbed him from the back and effortlessly hoisted his slender body over the wrecked remains of a table. "Over here, I have to tell you something."

Resigned to being manhandled by the buff lady, Jaemin squirmed in her arms to turn his upper body and face her. "What do you—" He cut himself off upon seeing the blood smeared on the right side of her face. "What the actual fuck. Why are you bleeding from there again!?"

He was awarded an impatient scowl. "It doesn't matter now. What's important is that I have a theory about our unique magic and Overblot that can make or break us."

Jaemin put aside his instinctive urge to fuss over her, knowing that there were more pressing matters to address. "Well shit, get on with it then."

"Water is known as a purifying element, right?" Cuifen said rapidly, words slurring together in her haste. "And what do you think water does to ink?"

Catching on to the basis of her hypothesis, Jaemin's eyes widened as he finished her thought for her. "It washes away ink! My powers—they, they can counter the blot!"

"You got it, Jae." Face aglow with pride and excitement, she cupped Jaemin's cheeks and grinned. "And do you know what my powers can do? I just realised they don't just summon or control shadows, they can connect with _all_ forms of darkness."

"I have no idea what that means but it sounds fucking cool," Jaemin said airily, placing his hands over hers. "Explain, dude."

"I thought I was going crazy but I can hear and feel Riddle's emotions and thoughts," Cuifen said in an awed whisper, "they're coming from the inkblot, the darkness around him and the shadows. The evil in him had manifested into physical forms of darkness and it doesn't matter if the darkness is the literal absence of light or the metaphorical darkness that resides in humans—they can answer to _me_."

Time seemed to come to a standstill as her words sank in, worming their way through the canals and leaving a trail of mini explosions in his brain.

"No way," Jaemin spoke in a hushed breathless voice, staggered by the great revelation. "No fucking way."

"Do you get it? We're supposed to stop the Overblot—together, the two of us," Cuifen continued, "it was never revealed how exactly the Overblot ended. The gameplay just showed us the chibi battle scene and their backstory and that's it—they're back to normal. We're supposed to find a way to actually stop it without canon info and we did!"

"Okay, okay." Jaemin held up a hand, still recovering from the information overload. "So from what you just told me, we're going to target the thing behind Riddle, specifically its flask head. Am I right?"

"Yes, the ink is in there so we gotta get rid of it. I'll try and gain control of the blot with my powers—I think I know how they work now. And for the remaining ink that I can't subdue for some reason, you'll come in and weaken it. Got it?"

Despite the simplistic terms downplaying the difficulty of what they were about to attempt, Jaemin could envision a clear image of her idea and the expected results. Teamwork and willpower would be crucial factors in securing their victory. It would be risky, considering they were just "winging it" with the theory Cuifen came up with on the spot and the woman would be dabbling in an esoteric branch of magic that could have severe repercussions but it was their best shot.

Jaemin nodded determinedly. "Let's go."

Together, they sprung to their feet and bolted towards Riddle with multi-hued magic wreathing their hands and wrists.

Emptying her mind of any and all thoughts, Cuifen debased herself to her most primitive instincts and acted upon them. Heeding her call, every shadow in the compound sprung free of the chains keeping them bound to their domain. The plumes of shadow wove through the grass and debris and streaked towards the glass head of the Overblot manifestation at breakneck speed.

"Is that-?" Grim stuttered but was interjected by its own scream as a rose tree was hurled in their direction by the entity.

The shadows phased through the projectile which was stopped in its tracks by Cater floating it away to the side. Unimpeded, they avoided Riddle's volley of spells and crashed straight into the chink in the entity's armour—its fractured glass head. Upon impact, the phial shattered into fragments and the entity released an ululating howl, its corporeal body partially dissolving into dust. Riddle and the ink that stubbornly lingered on the shards of the glass, however, remained unaffected and that brought them to their next course of action.

The shadows gyrated around the ink, wrestling for control as intangible and tangible blended into a phantasmagoric amalgamation. The mast of umbra returned to Cuifen and with a controlled flex of her fingers, she compressed it into a ball of writhing energy within her palm. Sweat dotted her browline as the dull pang in her head worsened into a throbbing ache, the excessive usage of arcane magic taking its toll on her.

When the last vestiges of shadows faded away, a familiar black crystal sat in her hands. Laughing at the irony, Cuifen's legs gave out and she fell to the ground, limbs trembling and chest heaving. She had done her part—the rest was up to Jaemin now.

"KEEP DISTRACTING RIDDLE!" Jaemin yelled, jolting the rest out of their shellshocked state. "The glass is damaged now, just a little more and we're done!"

"Leave it to us!" Cater shouted as he and his copies launched an onslaught of blinding lights straight into Riddle's eyes.

Letting out an agonised wail, Riddle lowered his head and covered his face, unwittingly giving Jaemin the chance to conjure a cyclone of water and aim it straight at the remaining ink staining the gown of the Overblot entity. As expected, the water doused it from head to toe and purged it of the congealing ink.

With one last reverberating cry, the entity exploded in a cloud of glass and distorted energy. The aftershock flattened the uneven grounds around it and sent more rubble flying. Dispensing the last of his mana, Jaemin swiftly erected more ice barriers around his friends and himself. Once the coast was clear, the barriers melted away and everyone laid their eyes on Riddle.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the redhead had collapsed, no longer controlled by the manifestation of his own blot after their bond was severed. Unbeknownst to everyone, Yuu who was still inside the ice dome a little ways from the scene of chaos keeled over as well.

Having pushed himself to the limit, Jaemin failed to stay upright on his feet and faceplanted on the ground.

This time around, he willingly succumbed to his fatigue.


	14. Hugs and Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i went through so many emotions writing this chapter haha. it's super fluffy with a dash of angst and i'm very very satisfied with the way it turned out. #riddlesupportsquad

_**"Tell me, Mother. Which rules should I follow to make this pain disappear?"** _

* * *

When Jaemin came to several minutes later, Deuce was hovering above him with his brows knitted together into a frown. Jaemin blinked his eyes several times as sunlight flooded his vision and vaguely, he realised that the sepia-hued sky had cleared up and returned to its original robin blue. The sunny perfect weather officially marked the end of the Overblot scene and judging by the delighted cries of "Riddle!" from Trey and Cater, they had successfully pulled off their plan.

"Oh thank fuck it's over," Jaemin groaned, squirming in Deuce's hold.

Deuce lifted him into a sitting position gently, relief settling in upon seeing Jaemin stirring awake. "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"Like shit," Jaemin said flatly as he craned his neck to the side with a loud crick and surveyed his surroundings. "Is everyone okay?"

Heartslabyul's botanical garden was completely unrecognisable from its previous pristine conditions. Trees had been uprooted, tables had been splintered in half and parts of the fence had been ripped out during Riddle's Overblot and they were strewn on the ground haphazardly, creating an unsightly view. It was nothing magic and money couldn't fix but just the thought of how much the repairs would cost made the frugal side of Jaemin tear up.

"Riddle-senpai just woke up. Yuu got up a few minutes ago after your ice melted and Headmaster and Ace are with them but Cuifen is still unconscious. Her head wound is being treated by Jamil-senpai right now." Deuce heaved a sigh and cast his gaze in the direction of Cuifen's prone figure which was propped up in Jamil's lap. "I swear, she's a walking safety hazard."

"Pft, that's our Fenfen for you," Jaemin said in fond exasperation before back-tracking. "Wait, why did Yuu faint too?"

Deuce scratched his cheek. "I'm not sure. I haven't asked them yet."

"Weird, maybe they were just tired," Jaemin thought aloud. Yuu couldn't possibly get injured in that man-made ice dome, could they?

Deciding to ask Yuu about it later when everything had died down and everyone was feeling a little less on edge, he shuffled in place as he tried to regain some feeling in his numb limbs. The cramps seizing his muscles were bound to make walking a little difficult for the next few days.

Jaemin gratefully took Deuce's proffered hands and pulled himself to his feet. His knees knocked together as a violent tremble coursed through his legs, nearly causing him to collapse once more. With a muttered curse, Jaemin leaned against Deuce and let himself be supported by the other boy's steady arm as they crossed the lawn together and headed towards the Scarabia trio.

Looking like a bereaved parent, Kalim wrung his hands as he pestered Jamil for updates about Cuifen's injury. Even from afar, Jaemin could make out the worry lining the edges of their eyes as Jamil swept his pen over the woman's bleeding temple. The garnet at the tip of his pen glowed a deep maroon shade as his magic sewed up the ruptured skin bit by bit to stem the bleeding.

"How did she hurt herself in the exact same spot?" Jamil said tiredly without even looking up at the newcomers as he dabbed at the crusted blood on her cheek with a wet handkerchief.

Deuce did a half-shrug, looking equally distressed. "She probably knocked her head against something or maybe the branches of a flying rose tree got her or the giant ink monster did..."

"I'm pretty sure she's only unconscious because she wore herself out using her magic trying to defeat Riddle's Overblot monster. The same thing happened back at Dwarfs' Mine," Jaemin added.

"Great Seven." Kalim brought his hand up to massage his forehead. "What the hell happened while we were gone?"

"Good thing you left before shit really hit the fan." Jaemin grimaced. "Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty.'

"You can say that again," Grim chimed in, scurrying up to them on all fours. It studied Cuifen's healing wound with a commiserating shake of its head before nudging her limp hand affectionately with its nose. "Jeez, she is always throwing herself into danger. You better look out for this human, Jamil. She's a handful, yanno."

"I have two hands," Jamil murmured absent-mindedly and did a double-take when he realised what he had blurted out.

Luckily for him, no one had heard him.

"Since it's Jamil, she's in good hands. Look, he already healed her," Kalim said with a smile growing on his lips.

"Oh. Speaking of healing, I didn't know you can do medical-related spells too, Jamil-senpai," Deuce said, tilting his head.

"No, I'm not very good at them. I only learnt this spell after seeing Madam Gabrielle cast it on Cuifen," Jamil admitted, carefully inspecting the thickening scar on her temple before putting away his pen. "It heals wounds like cuts and abrasions so I thought it might come in handy in the future. Turns out I was right..."

"That's impressive! I'll never be able to learn a spell just by watching someone do it. Really, you're smarter than you let on, Jamil-senpai," Deuce said sincerely.

Jaemin, Grim and Kalim nodded in emphatic agreement. With cheeks coloured a ruddy red, Jamil looked like he was about to refute or brush off the compliment when an indignant shout rang out.

"It's 'cause you coddle him like that that he throws tantrums when he gets scolded! What he did was no joke, y'know? I almost died there for Seven's sake."

"Ace. Go easy on the guy, he just went through some intense shit." Came the world-weary voice of Yuu.

"Like hell I will! He also put _us_ through some intense shit!" Ace retorted, pointing an accusatory finger at the piteous figure of Riddle.

"Mister Trappola, Yuu, mind your language," Crowley said mildly but went unheard by everyone in the midst of the commotion.

Grim folded its arms over its chest. "Yeah, you can't just go wild just because you need to relieve stress, yanno? You vented it all out on us!"

Riddle hung his head, his petite frame quivering. "I...I wanted..." he began in a small tremulous voice. "I really wanted to eat that marron tart."

"Eh?" Ace said dumbly.

Everyone fell silent, training their gazes on Riddle who was summoning every ounce of courage in him with a Herculean effort to confess the things he had kept bottled up; the feelings and wants he had been forced to deny vehemently.

Riddle steamrolled on, blinking away the tears welling up in his metallic grey eyes. They were no longer saturated in an otherwordly red glow and Jaemin had never felt more relieved to see the colour silver again. "I like white roses too. And pink flamingos are totally fine...And I prefer honey over sugar in tea. I actually like milk tea more than lemon tea...I wanted to talk to everyone after meals!"

"The waterworks are about to start," Jaemin said with a chuckle, missing Deuce's amused look in his direction.

"Riddle?" Trey called softly, not wanting to spook the overwhelmed redhead.

Riddle looked up at the green-haired boy, snivelling. "I've always...I've always wanted to play with you more, Trey. I want to have fun with everyone-"

He cut himself off with a long wail. And with that, the floodgates opened and tears streamed down Riddle's cheeks. Choked hiccups left his lips as he began bawling on the spot, shielding his face with his arms and hunching his shoulders. His meltdown rendered everyone temporarily speechless. They could only watch as Riddle continued to cry, his chest heaving with the effort of breathing in air and releasing all his broken sobs at the same time.

Cater's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. "No way...Riddle is crying..."

Crowley, Yuu, Jaemin and Jamil had the sense to look away to give Riddle some semblance of privacy. Trey kept making aborted gestures to approach Riddle but backed out at the last second while Grim, Kalim, Cater and Deuce blatantly stared at the redhead as though they had never seen someone cry before.

The moment was promptly shattered by a socially inept Ace. "Hey! Don't think that I'll forgive you just because you're crying!"

"Dude," Yuu dragged out the word, facepalming.

Deuce shook his head. "You really should learn to read the atmosphere, Ace..."

"I'm sorry too. I always knew you were suffering but I kept quiet," Trey spoke up, his ochre eyes harbouring sorrow and guilt in equal measure. "That’s why I’ll say this now. Riddle, you were wrong. You should apologize to everyone here."

"I-I...I'm sorry! I'm...I'm so sorry," Riddle blubbered, furiously wiping away his tears with the cuff of his shirt.

"I actually wanted you to say sorry for everything you've done, Dorm Head, but..." Ace trailed off, filling everyone with a sense of foreboding. "As if I’ll be satisfied with a single sorry! I'll NEVER EVER forgive you!"

"Good grief, how old is he? Five?" Jamil muttered, shifting Cuifen's head so that she would be comfortable resting on his thigh.

Jaemin rolled his eyes. "He can probably hold a grudge till the end of humanity."

Though Jaemin did not entirely agree with Ace using the brutal honesty tactic to knock some sense into Riddle, he could not deny that it was effective _and_ efficient. If Cuifen was awake, she would probably approve of what Ace was doing. Just like the ginger, Cuifen could be merciless at times like during the Unbirthday Party where she pointed out Riddle's hypocritical behaviour and turned his own words and rules against him.

(Jaemin was just thankful she didn't literally slap some sense into Riddle because one hit from her and he would be going into a coma and never come out of it.)

However, her ruthlessness was not done out of cruelty or sadistic delight. She simply saw it as the most straightforward method to deal with difficult people since sugar-coating and currying favour wasn't 100% foolproof. Doing that could even backfire on you, depending on the context. She was very much different from Jaemin who would bow his head and ingratiate himself with any superior to make life easier for himself, 

"Eh!? Ace, how can you even say that in this situation!?" Cater said, appalled.

Kalim winced. "Ace, you might be a little too harsh."

"He's hopeless," Yuu said, placing a hand on their hips while the other covered their face.

"What do you mean I'm being too harsh!? I deserve to say this, okay!? I experienced a lot of trauma. And the marron tart I worked hard to make was thrown away like garbage. I won’t forgive you easily even if you cry," Ace huffed with arms akimbo and eyes narrowed at Riddle.

"This guy's a lot pettier than I am," Grim commented.

"Then, what should I do...?" Riddle said forlornly, lowering his arms and revealing his tear-stained face.

Ace tapped his chin with a finger pensively. "My birthday is not for a long while yet."

"Huh? What are you-?" Deuce started, recognising the scheming glint in Ace's cherry-hued eyes.

"That’s why we should have a do-over of the Unbirthday Party. We weren’t even allowed inside the party the last time so we need to arrange a better one. You also need to bring a tart that you personally made; you can’t ask Trey-senpai for help either! You have to make it from scratch! If you do that, then I may or may not forgive you," Ace said with a lofty sniff.

"The audacity of him..." Jamil said, partly in awe and partly in disbelief.

Kalim tossed his head back and let out a belly-deep laugh, his earrings tinkling along with the tinkling sound. "A party? That sounds like a good idea!"

"True, it does sound fun since the last one was ruined," Cater mused.

"Sounds reasonable enough," Yuu said with an indifferent shrug. "But Ace is really milking this for all it's worth."

"He's shamelessly guilt-tripping Riddle!" Grim pointed out.

"Outsiders, keep quiet!" Ace snapped at them without any real heat behind his words before turning to Riddle. "You got all that?"

"Yes, I got it," Riddle said quietly, fiddling with the end of his torn and tattered cape.

Sensing the respite, Jaemin expelled a long breath of air and pulled away from Deuce's hold to hobble towards Riddle. Hearing his heavy footsteps, Riddle looked up meekly and clasped his clammy hands to his chest. Seeing Riddle in such a sorry state brought back memories of him watching the gameplay of Riddle's pitiful childhood in his barren one-room apartment and crying along with him because-

Because he had felt the same crippling loneliness Riddle had been wasting away in all his life.

"Hey, Riddle?" Jaemin mustered a rueful smile as tears welled up in his cognac-brown eyes, turning them a shade lighter. "This is just a heads-up but...I'm sad so I'm going to hug you now."

Riddle's eyes widened. "Wha-?"

The question died on his lips as Jaemin stooped down and wrapped his arms around his slighter figure. One hand came up to gently rest on Riddle's head while the other splayed out on his back, rubbing it up and down in a feather-light touch. Involuntarily, Riddle relaxed—the tension ebbing out of his entire being while a twinge of an unfamiliar bittersweet emotion sat heavy in his chest like a stone.

Jaemin was clinging onto him tightly as though he would disappear the instant he let go but his hug was far from smothering. It was...nice. It warmed him from the inside-out, chipping away the last of his defences and thawing the ice-cold padlock around his heart. His mother's embrace had always been too hot, too suffocating, feeling more like a leash reinforced around him than a gesture meant to comfort and console.

But being swaddled in warmth and a peachy fragrance that was so inherently Jaemin felt like coming back home. He fit right into his arms as naturally as breathing was, slotting into place like a missing puzzle piece; seemingly tailor-made for him.

Although Riddle did not pull him closer or return the hug, he did not push the other boy away either. After all, he knew Jaemin needed this just as much as he did. There was something warm and damp soaking the spot Jaemin had pressed his face into and tactfully, Riddle did not mention it. Instead, he shut his eyes and let the last of his tears slip out as he buried his face in the crook of Jaemin's neck and muffled a sob.

This was the warmth he had been missing out on for all these years. And now that he had experienced it, he would cradle the kindling flame in his cupped hands and let it seep into him, echoing backwards in time and undoing the long days of winter he had spent in his mother's iron fortress.

"Thank you..."  
  


* * *

A while later, Riddle and Cuifen were carted off for a thorough check-up. Although they did not sustain grievous physical injuries aside from Cuifen's head wound, there was a potential strain on their magic capacity after that long arduous fight. Riddle and Jaemin were equally reluctant to part but their rationality won out in the end and Riddle was escorted away on a stretcher along with the still unconscious Cuifen. Trey, Jamil, Crowley and Kalim chose to accompany the two while everyone else remained in Heartslabyul since it didn't make sense for all of them to crowd the sick bay.

Once the others had left, Deuce gave Jaemin a packet of Kleenex to dry his tears and blow his nose. Even Ace—that snarky asshole—pulled him into an affectionate headlock while teasing him about being a crybaby in his own odd way of comforting people, earning a kick to the shin from Jaemin. Deuce and Ace were actual sweethearts and Jaemin was sticking to that fact no matter how much they liked to hide that side to them behind their respective personas.

Yuu, who was not as emotionally constipated as the two boys, patted his cheek tenderly and thanked him for the protection.

"Your ice dome thing was really cool," Yuu said, grinning.

Jaemin raised his brows. "Was that a pun?"

Yuu gave him an obligatory glare. "It was unintentional, goddamnit."

"Yeah, your magic is fu—I mean, fricking awesome, Jae!" Ace remarked. "You didn't even need to channel it through your pen. You sure you've never used magic before?"

"Definitely," Jaemin replied. "It's probably just a gift from the universe or something. To help Cuifen and I survive in a world full of magic and talented mages. Maybe that's why we're naturally good at it, although it's not fair for actual wizards like you I guess. It feels like we're cheating, ya know?"

"A gift, huh? Well, that's one way to put it," Deuce mused, shaking his head and chuckling. "It's fine, Jaems. We just have to work twice as hard to catch up to you."

Ace pounded his right fist into his left palm. "Yeah! We'll beat you one day when we unlock our unique magic too! Luck won't take you very far, y'know."

"That wasn't my point—ah, whatever," Deuce said, resigned.

Jaemin let out a laugh. "I'll look forward to it, guys."

While the humans were conversing, Grim came across a black crystal lying amidst the grass. Cocking its head to the side, Grim nosed it curiously and found the convoluted smell of strawberry and liquorice rather appealing. Its tail then perked up in delight while its mouth stretched into an impish grin.

"Look, this is the same black jewel we saw in the Dwarfs' Mine!"

Deuce looked over and frowned, perplexed. "You're right...where did it come from?"

Ace sent Grim a stern look. "Don't eat it this time."

"It's a taste I can never forget so I'll dig in!" Grim declared, already swallowing the crystal in one big gulp.

"Oi, Ace just explicitly told you not to—ah, forget it," Yuu deadpanned.

Cater fixed the creature with a look of amazement. "Eh? It can eat stuff like that with no problems?"

Grim licked its lips. "Hm~! It’s got a rather sweet taste, but there’s also a good kind of bitterness mixed in~! It’s a totally different taste from the last one I had!"

Jaemin sweatdropped. _'Of course, it is. The emotions and trauma of Riddle and that dwarf monster are different.'_

"Is your stomach really okay?" Yuu asked, bending down to ruffle Grim's fur. "Don't let this become a bad habit."

"Ah, he’s a monster so he’s probably made differently from us," Ace said nonchalantly.

"Even so, I don’t think that doing this constantly would do him good," Deuce said, looking sceptical.

"Hm, it’s got a really refreshing and soft kind of taste, yanno?" Grim chirped.

Jaemin flicked it on the nose. "You're really weird, Grim."

"I don't wanna hear this from the guy who cried on Riddle after hugging him!"

"And what's wrong with crying, you little runt?" Jaemin said, smirking wickedly as he advanced towards Grim with his arms outstretched.

"AHH, GET AWAY FROM ME! HENCHMAN NUMBER ONE, STOP HIM FROM TICKLING ME!"

Yuu pointed at themself. "Oh, I'm number one? What an honour."

"YUUUUU!"

"What number am I?" Deuce asked jokingly.

"YOU'LL BE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LIST IF YOU DON'T HELP ME, HUMAN!"

Realising that everyone was too entertained by them to lend a helping hand, Grim darted in between their legs and through the detritus, fleeing from Jaemin who was gradually catching up to it with his longer legs. Just as Grim was about to escape into the foliage of a mauled rose bush, the boy snatched it up and began blowing raspberries into Grim's fur, causing it to scream bloody murder while thrashing in his hold.

Instead of taking pity on the creature, Yuu took pictures of the scene with their phone while promising Ace and Deuce that they would send them to the group chat.

Watching Grim and Jaemin make a spectacle of themselves, Cater let out a soft laugh. They truly never failed to bring up the atmosphere everywhere they went. 

"You guys...thank you."

"Hm? Did you say something?" said Ace.

"Nope, I didn't~."

Following that, Cater coerced them into staying back for clean-up. Deuce and Ace had no choice since they were Heartslabyul students while Yuu, Jaemin and Grim stuck around to keep them company. Albeit, Grim's company seemed to be agitating them instead of boosting their morale, considering that it was bossing them around while they worked.

"Oi, Ace, pick that up and throw it away."

"I KNOW THAT'S _YOUR_ LITTER, GRIM."

While the residents and Cater's clones were busy clearing the rubble with Grim running off to bother some poor soul, Yuu approached Jaemin and opened up about their blackout. They revealed that during the time they were unconscious, they were actually watching a vision of sorts in an out-of-body experience. They told Jaemin they were allowed a glimpse into Riddle's rough childhood as if they had entered his mind itself and opened a window to his memories. In full clarity, they had witnessed how Riddle had lived under his mother's thumb and forgone simple joys like hanging out with friends, indulging in sweets and _living_ in general because of her expectations.

If Jaemin ever met Mrs Rosehearts face to face, he was going to punt that bitch into the sun. And judging by Yuu's murderous expression, they shared the same sentiments. If Jaemin was of legal age and was registered as a citizen of this world, he would have already prepared the adoption papers and all Riddle had to do was give his signature if he wanted to. He could already imagine the entire TWST fandom nodding their heads in approval.

"I think I can understand Riddle-senpai a lot better now," Yuu said quietly, bumping shoulders with Jaemin as they sat together on top of a trimmed hedge and watched Ace dump a pile of leaves on Deuce's head.

"Well, knowing how someone's past made them the way they are now is the reason why people justify others' horrible actions," Jaemin said. swinging his legs to and fro. "He was wrong on so many levels but it wasn't entirely his fault."

"Mhm." Yuu balled the hem of their shirt in their fists as a myriad of emotions flashed across their face. "Some people really don't deserve to be parents."

A beat of silence passed before Jaemin replied curtly. "Yeah. Some of them don't."

* * *

"This is the second time I'm seeing this girl in the infirmary in a week. Didn't I tell you boys to look out for her, hm? And as for _you,_ how can you let something as serious as an Overblot happen right under your nose?"

Stuck in a state between asleep and awake, Cuifen listened as a feminine voice rebuked someone in the room. Absently, she noted that there were soft sheets against her skin, a plush pillow beneath her head, the smell of antiseptic and freshly laundered fabric around her and a coarse yet gentle hand resting against her forehead.

The hand then shifted to her right temple and traced the raised flesh of her scar a few times, causing goosebumps to appear all over her skin. It could only belong to Jamil since she had held hands with him once and familiarised herself with the texture of his palm—rough and dry just like a hardworking servant's should be. A beat later, the familiar jangle of earrings sounded out to her left and despite being barely conscious, she easily identified the person beside her as Kalim.

She could feel the sheets covering her being pulled up to her chin by presumably Kalim since the hand brushing against her temple was still there. Under normal circumstances, she would freak out just knowing someone was seeing her in such a vulnerable state much less touching her without her permission but a touch this warm and tender couldn't be all that bad.

"We should let her get some rest. I'm sure she'll be better by tomorrow," Jamil spoke up, 

Kalim hummed in response. "En, we can prepare a care package for her tonight and give it to her when she wakes up!" He was shushed by Jamil and sheepishly, he continued in a softer voice. "What does she like?"

"Well...I know she likes brown sugar bubble tea and gummy candy. I see her snacking on them when she studies. But those are things she can get from her bag."

"Then, we'll have to give her something she hasn't tried or owned before! Oops right, sorry, I was too loud."

"We can continue this back in the dorm. If we stay here any longer, we'll be disturbing both patients."

Cuifen couldn't catch the tail-end of their conversation since they spoke to the other occupants of the room in an undertone for a few more minutes before leaving. By then, she had already drifted off into a fitful rest again. When she woke up for the second time that day, it was already sundown and the infirmary was bathed in warm gradient hues of sorbet pink and clementine orange.

With a dragged out groan, she rubbed her bleary eyes and sat upright in bed. After a few seconds of processing her disgusting dirt-crusted clothes and her new surroundings, she slid off the bed and found her phone placed beside her pillow. She checked the time, noting that it was already dinner before getting up to look for the nurse, steeling herself against a spasm of vertigo when blood suddenly rushed to her head.

Right after that, she recalled the crystal she had stored away earlier on and frantically checked her pockets. A sense of dread welled up in her when she realised it was missing. She didn't want to jump to conclusions straight off the bat but she fervently hoped that the game mechanism had ensured Grim had gotten its grubby paws on the crystal or else the plot might drastically change. If she had remained conscious, she could have surreptitiously dropped the crystal somewhere Grim could find but she had passed out before she could do so.

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, she resolved to check with Jaemin after her discharge as she drew open the privacy curtains around her bed.

"Oh, you're up." A hoarse voice broke her reverie as well as the silence in the room, startling her.

She whirled around and was faced with the sight of a recently showered Riddle in a set of plain white clothes sitting up on his bed just right across hers. In the afterglow of the sunset, he looked softened around the edges with his half-lidded eyes, oversized nightwear and a demure smile framing his lips.

"Hey, you feeling okay?" Cuifen said sluggishly, running a hand through her grimy hair and cringing.

Riddle looked a little taken aback by her question but answered nonetheless. "I'm...I'm a little sore and tired but that's about it."

"Ah yes, it's the aftereffects of the-" Cuifen deliberately left out the potentially triggering term, arching a brow.

The redhead nodded stiffly, bunching up his blanket in his hands. "It's manageable. Madam Gabrielle said that there were no complications but I do have to take it easy for the next few days."

"That's good to hear," Cuifen said, sounding endearingly awkward yet sincere to Riddle. "I'm glad we stopped it before things could get worse."

Riddle barely repressed a shudder. "Yes, it's all thanks to you and your friends...if you hadn't intervened..."

His stilted words tapered off into a charged silence as worst-case scenarios sprung to their frontal lobe, causing both of them to wince in tandem. 

"About that," Riddle continued, averting his gaze in shame. "I owe you an apology."

If she was drinking water, she would have done a dramatic spit-take worthy of a comedic scene in a sitcom. "Er, come again?"

"I owe you an apology," Riddle repeated, firmer this time around. He forced himself to look her dead in the eyes, unwavering in conviction but wary of rejection. "I involved you in a life-threatening situation all because of my immaturity and inability to control my-"

"Woah, okay, stop right there. You sound like you're standing trial in a courtroom and it's weird as hell, not gonna lie." Cuifen raised her hands in a universal "hold-up" gesture. "Just relax, I'm the only one here after all."

"That is partially the reason why I can't relax," Riddle said to himself, sotto voce, but was still audible enough for Cuifen.

Cuifen crossed her arms and pinned him with a pointed look. "Hey, I heard that." And in a softer tone, she added, "Look, just be honest with me—that's one thing I can appreciate."

Looking abashed, Riddle lowered his head but answered truthfully nevertheless. "Ever since the Unbirthday Party where you..."

 _'-where you more or less verbally shamed me in front of everyone.'_ Cuifen read in between the lines.

"-where you spoke up against my behaviour, I've been on guard around you. I could tell you didn't even mean to cause any offence since you were just speaking your mind but just hearing you openly point out and criticise me for my wrongdoings was...shocking, I suppose."

"Ace did the same thing," Cuifen couldn't help but mention.

"Yes, but, you—it's different," Riddle muttered, looking close to combusting from sheer mortification. "Ace said all that because he was upset over being punished but you...you just saw injustice happening in front of your eyes and you decided to do something about it even though you didn't have to concern yourself over it."

"You were being unfair to my friends. Of course, I'm making it my business," Cuifen said sternly, sauntering over to sit on his mattress.

Riddle jerked in surprise at their sudden close proximity but didn't look too discomfited by it so she stayed put.

"Yes, I know that but what I meant is..." Riddle trailed off, frustrated at his inability to articulate his thoughts and feelings.

He was normally much more eloquent than this so why was he fumbling with his words now? As a dorm head, it was mandated that he offered rallying speeches or impactful lectures to his residents and in order to pull that off, he had to be a good oratorical speaker. Yet, in the face of Cuifen's rapt attention and expectant look, he just froze up. The effect this imposing woman had on others with her larger-than-life presence, influence and easy confidence was truly impressive.

"Okay, so what I'm guessing is that you weren't used to having your behaviour called out by someone who hadn't personally been mistreated by you and that unsettled you," Cuifen stated in such a blasé, clinical manner that strangely put him at ease. The lack of judgement in her expression and in her tone was reassuring, to say the least. "Because if someone who isn't your victim or your enabler and doesn't hold any biased opinions of you claimed that there is something wrong with the way you were acting, it really means that you _were_ doing something wrong."

"Yes! Yes, that's...that's it," Riddle said weakly with downcast eyes.

"And we've already established that you don't take well to any implication that you're in the wrong," Cuifen said drolly, reaching out to pat his shoulder.

Riddle flinched but when he saw the faintest twinkle of amusement in her gunmetal eyes, he loosened up. He even mustered a brief soundless chuckle that brought a serene smile to Cuifen's lips and he deemed it as an accomplishment, considering he had only ever seen her either glowering at him or looking at him with immense disappointment the past few days.

"It's alright, man. You're acknowledging your mistakes, aren't you? That's already a step in the right direction."

"I've seen the errors of my ways so I'm going to do my best to change and become a better person." Creasing his bedsheets in his clenched hands, he snapped his head up to meet Cuifen's appraising gaze with the dying rays of the sun highlighting the resolute glimmer in his eyes. "I want to make it up to everyone and I want to start by apologising to you."

"No, I don't need an apology," Cuifen said gruffly but not unkindly. She shuffled closer to him and gripped him by his shoulders, making him look up at her through his lashes due to their height difference that was apparent even when they were both seated. "I'd actually prefer a promise."

"A promise?" Riddle echoed, mystified by her declaration.

"Yes, promise me you will come over to Ramshackle Dorm and bake with us when you feel better. I'm assuming there will be a do-over party soon since Ace is still mad salty about not getting to experience a proper one the last time." A throaty chuckle left her lips and to Riddle, the fondness she felt for her friends was unmistakable. His chest constricted with another painful twinge of a more recognisable conflation of emotions—envy and longing for someone other than his childhood friend Trey to speak of him in the same way. "We can bake a tart together since you wasted the last one we made. Well, you, Jaemin and Yuu will be making the tart. I'll probably just watch you guys while licking the leftover frosting out of the bowl."

This drew a more genuine laugh from Riddle who delicately covered his open mouth and nodded his head in acquiescence. "All right, I promise to bake together with you. In fact, I'll even overlook your...frosting-licking endeavours."

Cuifen gave him a strange look, taking a moment to parse his words before bursting into laughter. "W-What the hell? Dude! Don't say-" She was interrupted by a strangled wheeze escaping from her lips. "Oh God, please don't ever say that again. I beg you."

Riddle blinked his round guileless eyes, gracing her with a cherubic smile tinged with playfulness. "Don't say what? Frosting-licking endeavours?"

"STAPH." Cuifen shoved Riddle lightly, dissolving into tears as she clutched her ribs and toppled over to sprawl out over his legs. "I CAN'T-"

Riddle's innocent facade cracked immediately as her infectious joy spread to him, eliciting more sporadic giggles from him. He bent over to plant his face in Cuifen's arm as a hearty, uninhibited laugh finally forced its way out of him and filled the room, mingling with Cuifen's shriller hysterical one into a discordant noise akin to a hyena cackling while having an asthmatic attack.

And that was how the nurse found them—holding onto each other while laughing like a pair of lunatics as tears poured out of their eyes.


	15. Bonds and Breaks

The nurse left after bringing Cuifen and Riddle their dinner on a foldable tray table, shooting them a smile of amusement and reminding them to not overexert themselves. They ate together on Riddle's bed, taking care not to spill or drop anything on the white sheets. When Riddle noticed that Cuifen wasn't eating any vegetables, he piled some leafy greens on top of her rice and chided her lightly, sounding uncannily similar to her mother.

In retaliation, Cuifen force-fed him more beef with a witty remark about how he had barely any meat on his bones. She took it as a win when Riddle obliged and shoved the spoonful of rice and beef in his mouth with a furious blush spread across his cheeks, glowering half-heartedly at her.

Right after dinner, Cuifen took a shower at the restroom connected to the infirmary, bringing along the hospital gown left out for her. Once she was done bathing with the disposable toiletries provided, she returned to Riddle who was staring listlessly at his phone, face gaunt and unsmiling. Trey had probably brought it along when he followed him here.

"Is something wrong?" Cuifen asked, dumping her soiled clothes into the laundry hamper while running her hands through her damp hair that was now wavy after being locked in tight braids.

"No, I'm just checking if there is any news or updates about my...Overblot," Riddle forced out as he put his phone aside and sat up ramrod straight in bed.

"I don't think anyone leaked that info out to the public since everyone had evacuated before they could take pics or do other dumb shit like that." Cuifen strode over to him, picking up her phone along the way. "But I think there will be rumours about you for the next few days."

Riddle stiffened, his lips flattening into a thin line. "Of course, that's bound to happen. Overblot incidents are very rare for most mages and yet, I went into one."

Cuifen cleared her throat awkwardly. "The headmaster might do damage control and cover it up?"

The flat look Riddle gave her told her he highly doubted that.

"Okay, no, he won't do that," Cuifen sighed.

Sensing that the light-hearted mood in the room had dropped a little, Cuifen decided to change the topic. "So er, to take your mind off some things, why don't we play a game?"

Riddle raised his brows, looking equal part intrigued and bemused. "A game?"

"Yeah, have you heard of Amongst Us?"

"Yes, it's the most popular game right now. I've heard of it but I've never played it before. Is it fun?"

Cuifen had shrieked in glee when she discovered that the mobile game existed in Twisted Wonderland. The system in her phone could toggle between apps from her world and this world so it was rather confusing to use it sometimes since there were different functions from both dimensions contained in one device. For example, she could use both Instagram and MagiCame as long as she switched the mode when she entered the two-in-one app.

It was the same case for Among Us. She had tapped on the game icon out of boredom one day, not expecting it to actually work but when it did and the screen flashed the title "Amongst Us" instead of "Among Us", she kind of lost her shit. Soon, after exploring every feature of her phone, she found out that the only app from her world that no longer worked was Whatsapp.

She had tried to send messages to her friends in one of her experiments and none of them was delivered to the recipients; they were all marked with one grey tick. An error alert pop-up then appeared on the screen so she was forced to switch to TWST version of Whatsapp. With that app, she could contact her friends, even Jaemin and Yuu although their mobile number was Jaemin's old one which he used in Seoul.

The logic behind it all—their technology and their expendable bags—was a mystery to them but they weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Since these assets made life more convenient for them in a world where they lacked basic necessities and official documents and only had the clothes on their back, they learnt to stop questioning things that didn't affect them negatively.

"Definitely." Cuifen grinned, gesturing to Riddle to scoot to the side. Once he made some space for her, she shuffled under his blankets and sat beside him against the headboard. "It's simple but it's fun because it's an engaging multiplayer game. I suck at almost all kinds of games—like board games, mobile games and video games because they have _way_ too many rules for me to bother remembering but Amongst Us is just really easy to get the hang of."

"I see," Riddle said, nodding along to her earnest ramblings with a forbearing smile. "It sounds interesting. Why don't you teach me?"

"Oh, don't worry I will. Now, download the game first and go to Freeplay."

After helping Riddle with the tutorial, they joined the same server and picked their colours.

"I'm going with black."

"Red for me."

"Game's starting. Don't tell me whether you're the imposter or crewmate."

"Sure, same goes for you."

"Five seconds in and Blue is already following me, wow. This bitch sus."

"I think Cyan is faking asteroids. Should I call an emergency meeting? Alright, I'm going to call one."

"VOTE THEM OUT. VOTE THEM OUT. NO, WHY ARE YOU SUSSING _ME?_ I just said I have scan! Fuck, it's a tie between Cyan and me."

"Don't you mean suspecting? Not... _sussing?"_

"Oh, it's just a popular term in this game."

"Ah."

"Okay, good. Yellow saw me scanning in medbay."

"Blue just killed and vented in plain sight."

"I swear to God if they don't vote Blue or Cyan—okay, they voted out Blue. NOW VOTE CYAN."

"Yes, we won!" Riddle's face brightened as he smacked Cuifen's arm in his excitement though with how tiny he was compared to her, it felt more like a pat. He then looked up at her imploringly. "Can we play for a little longer?"

As if anyone would be heartless enough to say no to that.

Hence, she relented and they ended up playing several more rounds.

"I'm gonna stick with you this round, Riddle."

The redhead hummed non-committally, smiling to himself. While Cuifen was occupied with unlocking the reactor's manifolds, he stabbed her in the back. Literally. Once she realised her character was killed, she let out a theatrical gasp that elicited a string of giggles from the redhead. He covered his mouth with one dainty hand to muffle them, amused by the comical look of betrayal on her face.

"Bro, I trusted you! And you—you were an imposter the whole time!?"

"You told me not to reveal whether I'm an imposter or a crewmate," Riddle said through his laughter. "I'm just following instructions."

Cuifen began sputtering. "Didn't they see you following me? Now that I'm dead, shouldn't they suspect that you're the one who killed me!? Oh my God, none of them voted you out, I-"

As "VICTORY" flashed across his phone screen, Riddle cracked a toothy smile. "Looks like I'm pretty good at this."

"You just got lucky." Cuifen folded her arms across her chest, scowling. "I'm going to kill you first when I get Imposter."

"You can certainly try," Riddle said with a challenging gleam in his slate grey eyes.

And that was when Cuifen decided she would pretty much do anything to keep that spark of life in them alit.

* * *

After getting tired of playing Amongst Us, they chose to watch a slasher film together on Cuifen's laptop which she took out from her bag when Riddle wasn't looking. Since Riddle's mother found the senseless violence in them too inane and barbaric for him, he had never watched one before so Cuifen decided to show him what he was missing out on. The redhead stayed pressed up to Cuifen the entire movie, too frightened to inch away from her yet too prideful to cling onto her. Taking matters into her own hands (literally), Cuifen faked a flinch before grabbing ahold of Riddle's hand.

When he shot her a look, she shrugged and said: "I'm scared" although that was the furthest from the truth, considering how much she binged horror movies weekly. Visibly sceptical, he arched a brow at her but did not pursue the topic.

Cuifen had the tact to pretend she did not notice how Riddle laced their fingers together and crushed her hand in a bruising grip whenever an on-screen jumpscare caught him off guard.

Halfway through the movie, their visitors arrived with gifts in hand.

"Hey, you're finally up!" Kalim exclaimed, barreling into the room like a whirlwind.

"We volunteered to check up on you since everyone in Heartslabyul is busy dealing with all the..." Yuu made a vague hand gesture. "The mess. And Jaemin and Grim are still asleep back at Ramshackle Dorm so I didn't want to disturb them and just came on my own."

"I see," Riddle said in a stilted tone, looking up as he paused the movie.

"Looks like you're getting along pretty well," Yuu added with a smile that was dimmer than Kalim's but no less sincere upon noticing their closeness. "Jaemin was worried you'd maul each other if you stayed too long in the same room since you're both quick-tempered."

Riddle and Cuifen snorted in amusement, knowing that it was an indisputable fact about their personality.

Kalim bounded over to their bedside, peering at Cuifen's temple before scrutinising Riddle. "How are you two feeling? You look much better after Madam Gabrielle fixed you up."

"Thanks for visiting, guys. We're both feeling okay now." Cuifen patted Kalim's arm. She then pointed at the tote bag in his hands. "So what you got there?"

"Oh, Jamil couldn't make it 'cause he has lots of chores after dinner so he packed you some food from our homeland instead!" Kalim began taking out bento boxes and setting them on the bedside table. "There's Manakeesh—it's kinda like pizza with cheese, ground meat and herbs—and falafel! It's basically fried chickpeas, and it's a popular snack back home. If you're still hungry, you can eat these for supper."

"Thank him for me, please. That's really nice of him," Cuifen said, feeling touched by this simple but thoughtful gesture.

"Sure thing! And as for me, I got you this," Kalim said jovially as he procured a velvet box from his pocket and opened it up to reveal filigree silver earrings in the shape of stars with a large emerald stone in the middle. "I think they're perfect for you since your birthmark looks like a star and you've told me before that your name means emerald, er, emerald fragrance, right?"

Cuifen's mouth fell open involuntarily as she accepted the gift from the albino. "I didn't think you'd remember it but...wow, you didn't have to get me this. Thank you so much, I-"

She knew Kalim was filthy rich but she still felt undeserving of such an exorbitant gift, especially when she had only known him for a few days. She almost felt like she was taking advantage of his kindness but had to remind herself that he willingly gifted it to her without her even asking for it.

Kalim waved his hand flippantly, gracing her with another angelic smile. "Don't mention it, I just wanted to give you something 'cause we're friends now! And I don't think these earrings will look as good on anyone else as they will on you."

"Hm, I concur. They suit you quite well, Cuifen," Riddle chimed in, admiring the emeralds studded to the jewellery.

"Oh right, I brought some things for you too," Yuu said as they handed Cuifen her expendable bag first before turning to Riddle, placing a checkered duffle bag in his lap. "Trey and Cater wanted to check up on you but it...might be a little soon for that so they just sent their well-wishes. Here, Trey packed some chilled honey tea and your clothes for tomorrow and Cater got you a hand-drawn card with a teddy bear and everything. I wonder where he got that from..."

"I appreciate it, thank you," Riddle said quietly with an elegant incline of his head. "How are they?"

"Everyone is doing fine. No one's hurt," Yuu rushed to reassure him. "They're just worried about you."

Riddle's expression did a little complicated twist. "Really?"

"They care about you, okay?" Cuifen nudged him in the side. "Just accept that fact already."

"No one blames you for it, Riddle-kun," Kalim said ruefully, "you've been going through a rough time after all."

"But I made so many mistakes and I still have to apologise to you for all the hurtful things I've said." Riddle wrung the hem of his shirt nervously as he dipped his head in a bow in Yuu's direction. "It was absolutely uncalled for, I'm sorry."

"Oh, you meant the things you said about my ordinary upbringing? I mean, you're right but I'll still accept your apology," Yuu said gently. "Like Kalim said, you were kinda caught up in the moment so you vented it out on the people closest to you."

"It still doesn't justify the way I acted," Riddle whispered, looking vaguely haunted.

"Yeah, it doesn't. But what I'm trying to say is, go easy on yourself. You know what you've done wrong and you're trying to improve. An asshole won't care about becoming a better person so that just means you're not an asshole," Yuu said with a firm little nod, looking proud of the logic they just spouted.

"That's what I've told him," Cuifen said, placing her hand on Riddle's shoulder and rubbing soothing circles into it to ease the tension in him.

"You all..." Riddle trailed off, choking out the words through the web of emotions in his throat.

Knowing what Riddle meant but could not say aloud, Cuifen continued for him. "You guys are the best." She reached over to pat Kalim's hand while giving Yuu a soft smile.

"We know," Yuu said, flipping their hair sassily before returning her smile with an equally tender one.

"Well, we just wanted to come over to make sure everything's alright," Kalim said, still wearing his unwavering grin as he straightened his turban. "You should sleep earlier tonight to be fully rested tomorrow, okay? We can deal with all the annoying stuff then. Just focus on getting better for now!"

Riddle and Cuifen nodded.

"Wait, one more thing, Yuu." Cuifen raised a hand. "Can Riddle-senpai come over tomorrow to bake with us?"

Yuu agreed immediately. "Yeah, I'm cool with it. Ace might throw a bitch-fit over it but eh, he doesn't have to know about it."

"Ace only said I couldn't ask Trey for help so it's not like I'm breaking my promise." Riddle chortled.

"For someone who's a stickler for rules, you're pretty good at finding loopholes," Cuifen muttered, giving him a sidelong look.

Riddle merely hid a snicker behind his hand.

"Oooh, that sounds fun. What are you making?" Kalim asked.

"Tarts and maybe other things too if we have the time. Don't worry, I'll bring some over to Scarabia when we're done," Cuifen said, marvelling at how her offer brought a wide smile to Kalim's face—all pearly teeth and pure serotonin.

"You better!" Kalim winked before checking the time on his phone. "Well, we gotta get going now. Good night and sleep well."

"Sleep well," said Yuu as the two of them left the infirmary.

"Good night and thank you again," Riddle called after them.

After that, Riddle and Cuifen resumed the movie. The girl made a few scathing comments about the characters' stupidity now and then to make Riddle laugh and forget about his fear since he was cutting off the blood circulation in her hand from how hard he was squeezing it. It worked—Riddle even began shouting at the characters whenever they fucked up and it was quite entertaining for Cuifen to watch as his face grew as red as his hair.

"NO, WHY ARE YOU GETTING OUT OF YOUR HIDING SPOT? THE KILLER IS STILL IN THE HOUSE! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST SIT THERE AND WAIT UNTIL THE POLICE COME? LITERALLY, WHAT'S THE POINT!?"

"DO YOU THINK THE KILLER IS GOING TO RESPOND IF YOU ASK THEM WHERE THEY ARE!? NO, ALL YOU'RE DOING IS GIVING AWAY YOUR POSITION!"

"WHY ARE YOU WALKING AWAY FROM THE BODY? YOU JUST STABBED THEM ONCE! STAB THEM AGAIN TO MAKE SURE THEY STAY DEAD!"

By the end of the movie, Cuifen was in stitches from laughing too much while Riddle was completely breathless and beet-red. Since they were feeling peckish again, Cuifen shared some of Jamil's cooking with Riddle and they ate it together while watching food ASMR videos. He then introduced her to his favourite ASMR artists since he liked watching them whenever he had some free time and it progressed to them sharing about their interests and likes.

Cuifen had to tread very carefully in this conversation since anything she said could give away the fact that she was from another dimension. If she mentioned a fandom, a trend or a person that did not exist in Twisted Wonderland, Riddle was bound to realise that something was off. It wasn't as if she distrusted Riddle since she even told Kalim who was prone to blurting out secrets like no tomorrow about it but it felt too awkward to broach the subject now.

Was she just supposed to casually bring up that she had been transported to this world? That would definitely not go over well with Riddle. Things were still pretty tentative between them since Cuifen had just been hurling insults in his face a few days ago and he had tried to kill her just a few hours ago. There was some semblance of trust now but they still needed time to get used to each other's personalities and conflicting views.

Cuifen had always been a free spirit while Riddle's freedom had always been kept under lock and key by his mother. Then again, perhaps the difference in their nature was a good thing—Riddle could ground her whenever she soared too high and she could lift him from the pit he was trapped in whenever he wallowed too long. Even though they were off to a rocky start, Cuifen hoped she could finally consider him a close friend sometime in the future.

Thankfully for her, Riddle eventually became too tired to continue talking and so was she. The sleepier she was, the more likely she was to overshare. One moment he was going into a detailed spiel about his Equestrian Club which Cuifen was rather tempted to join since the first-years were going to have to pick their club very soon and the next, they were both drifting to sleep on Riddle's bed with the covers pooled at their hips and their hands clasped together between them on the pillow.

When Cuifen woke up at dawn, the left side of the bed was empty and cold as though no one was ever there. The first thought which entered her mind was that she had forgotten to brush her teeth before bed last night. Belatedly, she realised Riddle had already left but tucked her in before he did since she did not recall having the blankets all the way up to her shoulders when she fell asleep.

After lazing in bed for a while, she got up to get ready for the day as quickly as she could with cramped muscles. She had missed her morning workout for two days now and she was quite pissed off by that. At this rate, she was going to lose the bulk in her muscles and she swore her abs were slightly less defined than they were before she arrived in Twisted Wonderland.

It didn't help that she stuffed her face with Jamil's divine cooking whenever she could and snacked on an unhealthy amount of macarons and gummy bears while she did her revision. Her dieticians would burst a vein if they could keep track of the junk she had been filling her body with lately. 

Even though she no longer needed to devote her life to Krav Maga in this world, it wasn't something she could give up easily. For the past few years, her world had revolved around becoming stronger and better than her past self and pushing herself to her limits in that intense martial arts was a surefire way of doing so. If she wanted to stay at the top and surpass whoever she could, she had to double—no—triple her efforts. Especially since she was surrounded by men in this academy, she had to prove to the world that a woman like herself belonged here.

While making the bed, she briefly entertained the thought of finding a Savanaclaw student and sparring with them. They were notable for being good at physical activities, weren't they? Surely there was someone who knew Krav Maga and would be more than willing to fight her. If they refused just because she was a woman, she would have to use the more aggressive approach and trick them into fighting her. The restless itch to start a brawl had been gnawing away at her since she had arrived here so desperate times called for desperate measures.

She wondered if she should have just joined Savanaclaw in the first place but then grimaced at the thought of having to see obnoxious alpha males jacked on testosterone man-posturing and measuring dicks 24/7. There was no way she would last a week in that dormitory without killing herself or the men there. Or both.

After bidding Madam Gabrielle who was arranging pills in her office goodbye and promising her that she would take better care of herself, Cuifen departed for Ramshackle Dorm with her Kanken bag slung over one shoulder. If things worked out well on Riddle's end at Heartslabyul, he should have handed matters over to Trey and Cater and then make it in time for their baking session at noon.

God knows he needed a break after his Overblot. His residents would be less than pleased to see him around since they had suffered under his reign for the past year and it might affect Riddle to be stuck in an environment like that while he was still recovering. Cuifen had suggested them spending time together since she, Jaemin and Yuu would be able to give him the reprieve he needed away from his dormmates. Compared to the boys in Night Raven College, they were less emotionally stunted so that meant they were the right people to handle Riddle's emotional vulnerability.

That was what the boy needed right now instead of the censure and anger from his residents.

Just because he had gone through an Overblot once, it did not guarantee that he wouldn't ever experience one again. In fact, Cuifen suspected that magicians who had gone into Overblot would actually be more susceptible to another one if they weren't careful since their psyche had already been weakened by the damage taken during the build-up to the Overblot and the aftermath.

The issues Riddle had wouldn't magically disappear just because he had the more explosive and deadlier version of a mental breakdown. They needed to be properly addressed and dealt with but since the ever-so-useless headmaster could not afford a guidance counsellor for some unfathomable reason, the duty fell upon the three of them to make sure Riddle was coping well with the new changes before they could send him off into unfriendly territory again.

Trey and Cater might be able to shield Riddle from the negativity but they could not single-handedly fend off any verbal attacks that might come his way. The larger the support system for Riddle, the better. The two third-years were good friends but since they couldn't stand up to him all this while, they might relapse into their old habits. Trey was overly doting because he pitied Riddle and Cater kept quiet because he was more opportunistic than caring. He would rather let Riddle continue his dictatorial rule than risk angering him.

As the outsiders, Cuifen, Yuu and Jaemin actually had a better insight into the situation. As Cuifen had told Riddle last night, he needed people who weren't his victims or enablers to correct his behaviour.

Sending the group chat a text to let them know she was coming, Cuifen mulled over Riddle's hobbies and preferences he had told her last night to curate a schedule for what they were going to do today.

It was time Riddle made some friends and started living out the childhood that was stolen from him.

* * *

Jaemin and Grim ambushed her with a hug when she arrived while Yuu warned them not to overwhelm her. After enduring Jaemin's fussing and lectures about being a reckless martyr, Cuifen kissed Grim on the forehead and messed up Jaemin's meticulously styled hair lovingly which earned her an indignant squawk and a smack to the arm.

Just then, a knock resounded in the foyer.

"Coming!" Yuu called as they placed their phone on the settee.

They checked the peephole first before opening the door to admit Crowley in. Cuifen couldn't help but notice how the headmaster had never barged into the place like he did in canon. Maybe it was because he knew she stayed here from time to time so, to respect her privacy, he gave a heads-up first. It was kind of off-putting that the people here only changed their behaviour when there was a woman around but since it worked in her favour, she couldn't really complain.

"Ah, I see Miss Ming has been discharged," Crowley said as preamble, fixing her with a close-eyed smile from beneath his tacky beak-like mask. "Good, I've been meaning to talk to all of you."

"What is it, sir?" Jaemin asked as he guided the man to the striped couch in their lounge area.

"It's about Rosehearts' Overblot," Crowley said, cutting to the chase as he plopped himself down on the furniture while the rest took their seat on the settee. "Before that, Overblot is-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know what it is now. Before we went to bed, Jamil gave a very detailed explanation about it and how it can happen," Grim cut in, crossing its arms impatiently.

Unfazed by its rudeness, Crowley nodded and continued, "Very well, then we can proceed. What I want to discuss with you today are your abilities."

They all sit up a little straighter upon hearing that.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but Miss Ming can control umbra, Mister Song can control water at any state and Yuu have a premonition ability of some sort?"

All three of them nodded in response while Grim sat in Cuifen's lap, quietly docile.

"Interesting. So Yuu, you believed all along that you didn't possess any magic since you've only discovered this ability of yours yesterday, am I right?"

"Yes, Headmaster. But I technically still don't possess magic since I can't perform any spells like Cuifen and Jaemin can."

Cuifen propped his elbows on his thighs and steepled his fingers. "And do you have any idea why this is the case?"

"No, we're still sticking to the theory that it's because the way we left our world was different. And that it may also link back to how I lost my memories but they didn't."

"About that, do the two of you recall what you were doing before you ended up here?" Crowley addressed the others.

"I was taking a break in a practice room after dancing for a few hours," Jaemin said, excluding the part where he was playing Twisted Wonderland.

Cuifen picked at her cuticles, recalling that she was in bed with a fuckbuddy before she had woken up in the coffin. "I was sleeping."

"Hmm, that doesn't really sound particularly strange or out of the ordinary," Crowley muttered to himself before getting up. "Well, I will have to look into this matter as well-"

Cuifen and Jaemin raised their brows at that, knowing damn well he wouldn't.

"-so this is it for now. I've just wanted to clarify a few things with you. Oh, and I assume you two no longer need the extra lessons from me? All your teachers have reported to me that your spellcasting and practical work are absolutely flawless. Your theory work needs some improvement but that's perfectly understandable since it's only been a few days since you've arrived in a brand new world. I'm sure a few weeks of memorising textbooks and reading up encyclopedias will do the trick."

Cuifen sighed. "Yes, sir. We're doing our best to catch up."

"Good, good! I hope to expect more wonderful news then. Well, that's about it." Crowley stepped towards the door before doing an abrupt about-face. "Oh, and I heard Rosehearts will be coming over soon. Is that true?"

"Yes, do you mind relieving him of his Prefect duties for a few days?" Cuifen asked as she rose to send him off. "We think he could really use a break."

"Why, yes, of course! In fact, Clover has already volunteered to take over most of his workload," Crowley informed them, luminescent gold orbs twinkling behind the eye cut-outs of the mask. "It's indeed heartening to see you show such thoughtfulness for your fellow schoolmate—that's surprisingly rare around here. Anyway, have fun, kids! I'll be taking my leave now."

"Have a good day, sir," they chorused, watching him leave in a swirl of black and blue.

"That's surprisingly rare around here," Jaemin mimicked Crowley's voice the instant he was out of earshot. "Of course it is! With a headmaster and teachers like ours, no wonder everyone is a little fucked in the head."

"Jaemin," Yuu said admonishingly.

"Okay, _sorry_. I meant to say everyone is a little _twisted_ , mentally and morally."

Cuifen shrugged. "You're not wrong."

Yuu heaved a sigh of fond exasperation and directed them to the kitchen. "Okay, we have an hour or so to prep this sleepover so let's get to it."

Complying readily, they hurried into the kitchen with their bags unzipped and open.

Just as Riddle arrived at their doorstep, all the necessary ingredients and equipment were already set up on the kitchen counter. With one hand holding her hair up into a ponytail and a hairband pressed between her lips, Cuifen invited Riddle in who inspected the interior of the dorm before nodding in satisfaction.

"I heard Viper was the one who tidied up this place. He did a remarkable job if I do say so myself," Riddle said in his typical pretentious yet endearing diction, gratefully passing his luggage to Cuifen's awaiting hand.

"Yeah, Jamil is amazing," Cuifen said though the words all came out garbled and unintelligible since she still had the hairband between her lips.

"Thank you for having me over again," Riddle said, toeing the edge of the carpet in a bashful manner.

"No problem. We wanted you over because we thought it will do you some good!" Jaemin's voice drifted out from the kitchen.

"And because it will be fun for all of us!" Yuu tacked on.

Cuifen nodded vigorously in agreement and that was all it took for Riddle to ease up as a happy blush suffused his cheeks.

The woman set his luggage down on the armchair before ushering him to the kitchen where Yuu and Jaemin had already donned their matching frilly yellow aprons. Jaemin was sorting out the dry and wet ingredients while Yuu was perusing the tart recipe on a Macbook placed on the kitchen island.

"We're all set~!" Grim cheered, scuttling up and down the kitchen floor.

"Let's get started then," Riddle said mildly as he accepted a plain red apron from Jaemin.

"I'll get my stomach ready," Grim said in a sing-song voice.

Cuifen slid onto the counter stool with a smirk playing on her lips. "You can say that again."

Riddle brandished a rolling pin at Cuifen. "You're helping whether you like it or not."

"I'll help with the taste-testing?"

"Try again."

"...I'll help with the whisking."

"That's good enough for me."

**Author's Note:**

> OC DESIGNS (picrew is a blessing)
> 
> 1\. eighteen-year-old cuifen https://share-cdn.picrew.me/app/share/202012/12489_lYOvd4j4.png  
> 2\. young ming cuifen https://share-cdn.picrew.me/app/share/202012/207297_I39FyA6x.png  
> 3\. eighteen-year-old jaemin https://share-cdn.picrew.me/app/share/202012/32223_IonpxaQ2.png  
> 


End file.
